JOSE THOMAS Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Dated this the 7th day of December 2020 Applications for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of Cr.P.C.

(2.) The applicants in the aforesaid bail applications are arraigned as additional accused in Crime No.247/2019 of Peruthurai Police Station for having allegedly committed the offence punishable under Section 395 read with Section 34 of the I.P.C.

(3.) The prosecution case, in brief, is that a businessman named Anwar Sadarth, who was running jewellery business under the name and style "City Gold" in Coimbatore and "K.M.Rexine Company" in the State of Kerala, had on 03.04.2019 asked his drivers to carry Rs.30 lakhs in cash from Chennai to Kerala in his car. When the car crossed the Toll Plaza at Thondi, four unknown persons, who were identifiable, dressed in police uniform came in two vehicles, stopped the drivers and thereafter took the sum of Rs.30 lakhs from them. Subsequently, it is revealed that the crime was perpetrated not by those four persons alone, but by a gang consisting of ten persons, which also includes the applicants herein and in consequence of that they also have been implicated as accused. The original persons, who were arrested, were already granted regular bail by the Sessions Court, Ernakulam. The applicants state that they may be granted anticipatory bail since they have been only implicated subsequently.