Read Time: 07 minutes

Synopsis

The Supreme Court on December 20, 2024, took exception of an order by the the Patna High Court for granting anticipatory bail to three individuals accused of pouring kerosene on a young man and setting him on fire, leading to his death, allegedly due to his love affair with a girl from their family.

A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Prasanna B. Varale ruled that the High Court had erred in granting bail in a cursory and mechanical manner. The bench noted that the High Court failed to consider crucial evidence on record, including the chargesheet which stated that the case had been found true against all the accused persons.

Court relied upon Sushila Aggarwal Vs State (NCT of Delhi) (2020), which laid down the factors to be considered for grant of anticipatory bail such as the nature and gravity of the offences, the role attributed to the applicant, the facts of the case, and special conditions.

"Considering the laid law and the fact that there are specific averments in the FIR against all the accused persons including the respondents herein that all of them had set the deceased on fire with an intention to kill him, we fail to understand as to how the High Court had granted relief of anticipatory bail to the respondents in an offence under Section 302 of IPC," the bench said.

Court allowed an appeal by Shambhu Debnath (the complainant) against the High Court's order of July 25, 2023, granting pre-arrest bail to Ratan Devnath, Lalita Devi, and Rina Devi.

The complainant filed the FIR on January 13, 2023, with Motihari Mufasil police station that at 7 pm stating that he heard the ruckus and saw that the body of his 20-year-old nephew, Mukesh Kumar, was ablaze the fire.

When the complainant asked his injured nephew, he said that Sindhu Devnath, Sanjit Devnath, Ratan Devnath, Lalita Devi , Sunil Devnath and Rina Devi had caught hold of him and all of them started beating and abusing him.

Further, it was stated that all of the accused persons, with an intention to kill, poured kerosene oil over the appellant’s nephew and set his body on fire. The victim succumbed to the burn injuries on January 17, 2023.

The present accused persons approached the court of Additional Sessions Judge for anticipatory bail which was rejected on March 24, 2023.

Subsequently, the police submitted chargesheet against one of the accused persons namely Sindhu Devnath, wherein it was also categorically mentioned that from the investigation so far, the case had been found true against all the accused persons named in the FIR and the subsidiary investigation of the case was still pending then.

The present accused persons then approached the High Court, which granted them anticipatory bail.

Notice in the case was issued on January 12, 2024. However, despite service, the present accused persons initially failed to appear before the court. They eventually appeared on November 4, 2024. Thereafter, they stopped appearing, forcing the court to issue a non-bailable warrant against them. On November 25, 2024, they appeared before the court.

Going by the facts and circumstances of the case, the bench said, "We do not deem it appropriate that anticipatory bail should be granted to the respondents-accused".

The court directed the present accused to appear before the trial court within four weeks.

The bench, however, clarified they are granted liberty to file an application for regular bail, which if filed would be considered as per law on its own merits uninfluenced by any observations made in the present judgment.

Case Title: Shambhu Debnath Vs State of Bihar & Ors