(1.) This is an application by the petitioner for release on bail.
(2.) It has been urged for and on behalf of the petitioner that the petitioner is innocent. He has been falsely implicated in the present case. He is a young boy of 18 years and is a student of XIIth class. The only role assigned to the petitioner is that he also hit the deceased with fists and kicks. The petitioner has been in custody since September 20, 1996. Thus the petitioner is entitled to an order of bail.
(3.) Learned P.P. on the other hand, has contended that the petitioner is known to the other assailants. Hence it should be presumed that there is a common intention on the part of all the assailants to kill the deceased. Furthermore,one of the assailants hit the deceased with a dagger (Kirpan) many a times as a result whereof the deceased succumbed to the injuries sustained at the hands of one of the assailants i.e., Jaspal Singh.