Subash Debnath On Behalf Of Accused Person Sri Sumit Das @ Suman vs State Of Tripura

Arindam Lodh, J

Heard Mr. S. Sarkar, learned senior counsel assisted by Ms. P. Chakraborty, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. Ratan Datta, learned PP assisted by Mr. S. Debnath, learned Additional PP appearing for the respondent-State.

This is a case where a housewife had been allegedly murdered by the accused, Sumit Das, on whose behalf the present bail application has been moved before this court. The accused has been in custody for 960 days in view of the order passed by the learned trial court. Several bail applications were moved for releasing the accused on bail, but, those were rejected, either by the trial court or by this court. In the meantime, on medical ground, the accused, Sumit Das was released on bail for 7 days. He was in his house. He surrendered to the jail authority in terms of the court order. There is no evidence that during that period he had tried to intimidate or win over the witnesses of the case. No materials regarding criminal antecedent of the accused are available in the record. The accused is not known as a dreaded criminal in the locality. No such evidence has been surfaced in the case diary.

I have considered the submission of learned PP that there is serious apprehension that the witnesses will be influenced by the accused if he is released on bail.

I find no foundation of this submission. In this way, liberty of a person cannot be curtailed as envisaged under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. We should not forget that this is not the stage of punishment.

The defence plea is that it is a simple case of suicide. If it is homicidal or suicidal that will be considered after trial.

Now, what the court will consider as to whether there is any reasonable apprehension in the mind of the prosecution that the witnesses will be influenced by the accused if he is enlarged on bail.

As I have already observed that the accused has no criminal antecedent, and there was no attempt to win over the witnesses relied upon by the prosecution, I think there is no need at this stage to detain him further when the accused has already suffered 960 days in custody.

Keeping in view of the aforesaid facts, yet another aspect is that the mother of the present accused was also an accused who was enlarged on bail after a few days of the occurrence, but, there is no material that taking the advantage of bail, she ever tried to intimidate or influence the witnesses.

Having considered the aforesaid factors, this court is of the view that the accused can be released on bail. Accordingly, the accused, Sri Sumit Das @ Suman is released on bail on executing bail bond of Rs. 1,00,000/-supported by two sureties of the like amount to the satisfaction of the learned trial court. The accused shall also abide by the following conditions:-

(i) The accused shall attend before the Investigating Officer of the concerned police station on each and every date;

(ii) The accused shall attend the proceeding on each and every dates as to be fixed by the learned trial court;

(iii) The accused shall never try to influence or intimidate any of the witnesses connected with the case;

(iv) Liberty is given to the police officials to approach this court if any of the above conditions are violated by the accused, Sumit Das.

With this observation and directions, the instant bail application stands allowed and disposed.

The case diary is returned back to the learned PP.