KARAN KHUSHALANI Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the first bail application filed under Sec. 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for grant of regular bail to the applicant who has been arrested in connection with Crime No. 448 of 2016 registered at Police Station- Civil Lines, Bilaspur, District Bilaspur (C.G.) for the offence punishable under Sec. 304 Part-II, 201 r/w Sec. 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) As per the prosecution case, the incident happened in the intervening night of 21st and 22/7/2016 at a place named Rama Magneto Mall, Bilaspur. One Gaurang Bobde died who was in association with the present applicant and other co-accused. Gaurang Bobde fell down from second floor while was getting down from stairs along-with the applicant and other co-accused. According to the FIR, few of the friends of the applicant along-with the deceased Gaurang and other friends namely Kabir Arora, Aditya Arora, Vishal Agrawal, Arjun Sonchhatra, Gaurav Agrawal, Ankit Malhotra, Karan Jaiswal, Kinshuk Agrawal, Karan Khushlani were celebrating a party at TDS Bar at Mall. Few of them left the party after some time while the deceased and other applicants continued the sitting. The applicant and the other co-accused including the deceased consumed alcohol during the party. Initially Kabir Arora, Aditya Arora, Vishal Agrawal, Arjun Sonchhatra, Gaurav Agrawal and Ankit Malhotra left the Bar, thereafter, Kinshuk Agrawal also came out of the Bar and at last Karan Khushlani, Karan Jaiswal and Gaurang Bobde, the deceased, came out of the Bar. They were going towards the service lift to get down from second floor and on their way, they met Ankit Malhotra and Kinshuk Agrawal who forgot the key of their Car. Thereafter, all the four accused namely Karan Jaiswal, Kinshuk Agrawal, Ankit Malhotra, Karan Khushlani and the deceased Gaurang Bobde came back to Bar and again went towards the service lift wherein the lift-man Pushpendra Singh was on his duty. When they reached near the lobby of the lift, the lift went down and all the four accused who appeared to be normal along-with the deceased who was dead- drunk knowing full well the condition of Gaurang Bobde who was in intoxicated condition went to get down by stairs. The said act was done despite knowing the height of the railing of the stairs are short and they have to go to basement and getting down from the stairs may be dangerous and if they fall, there may be chances of death, without waiting for the lift and ignoring the request of the lift-man to use the lift started to get down by stairs. The deceased Gaurang Bobde also followed the applicant. At that time the lift-man again requested the applicant and other co-accused to use the lift, but they refused to go by it and Ankit Malhotra was dragging the deceased Gaurang to get down by stairs and dragged him from first floor to the first landing. During such coarse Gaurang made to fall from stairs to the basement 2. After his fall the applicant and others left the deceased to die his own death without helping him to get the first aid and showed nothing has happened. Further on being asked, applicant refused to preside their ear, consequently the deceased was taken by few of the employees of the Mall and of TDS Bar to the District Hospital wherein Gaurang was reported to be dead. The cause of death was shown in the Post Mortem to be the head injury associated with excessive internal haemorrhage due to rupture of liver. On the basis of CCTV footage, the applicant along-with the other accused have been apprehended and charge sheet under Sec. 304 Part-II read with Sec. 201 and 34 of IPC has been filed.

(3.) Learned senior counsels appearing on behalf of the applicant Mr. Surendra Singh along-with Mr. Manish Dutt would submit that death of Gaurang Bobde was due to accident as after consuming fair amount of Alcohol by the deceased and his friends while they were coming down by the stairs due to non-availability of the lift for the moments Gaurang Bobde has fell down as he could not control his movement due to intoxication. It is further contended that it is nobody's case that there has been any dispute as few of the friends along-with the applicant and other co-accused and the deceased were celebrating a party, few of the friends left the party earlier as usual and the deceased and four accused including the applicant stayed till 2:00 O'clock at the Bar. It is further stated that according to the case of the prosecution nobody were over drunk or not in position to walk and normally since lift operation of customer had stopped as such they decided to use the service lift to get down. It is further stated that the CCTV camera has been seized and the footage will show that firstly the applicant and other co-accused with the deceased had gone to service lift and according to the statement of Pushpendra Singh Thakur, the Liftman, the applicant and others were not staggering and one of accused, who had earlier left the Bar since forgot his key of Car come back with Ankit Malhotra for the key. So after taking the key again started to come down initially they wanted to come by lift, but the lift has gone to the first floor. Therefore, the initial intention was to get down by lift but as the lift had gone down they decided to come down by stairs. It is further stated the accused waited for the lift for one minute but since the lift was not available as such they decided to go down by walking down by the stairs. It is contended that walking down by stairs cannot be regarded as an offence and it was all individual decision.