M PANDI Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Is a person entitled to file a second application for pre-arrest bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, without establishing any change in the circumstances of the case since the dismissal of the first application filed by him for the same relief? This question arises for consideration here.

(2.) The petitioners are the first and the second accused in the case registered as Crime No.442/2018 of the Balaramapuram police station under Sections 143, 147, 148, 341, 294(b), 323, 324, 326 and 307 read with 149 I.P.C. Along with the third and the fourth accused in the case, the petitioners had filed an application for anticipatory bail as B.A.No.3213/2018 before this Court. As per the order dated 11.06.2018 in B.A.No.3213/2018, this Court granted pre-arrest bail to the third and the fourth accused in the case but rejected the prayer made by the petitioners for that relief. The petitioners have filed this second application for pre-arrest bail on 30.07.2018 (but the application was moved before this Court only on 14.09.2018).

(3.) The prosecution case is that on 26.03.2018, at about 22.00 hours, at the place Uchakada, the accused together wrongfully restrained the de facto complainant and attacked him with deadly weapons and made attempt to murder him. It is alleged that the first accused caught hold of the neck of the de facto complainant and pushed him down and beat him on the head with an iron lever stating that he would kill him. The first accused also beat the de facto complainant on the forehead and the face with the iron lever causing fracture to the bones. The second accused stabbed him on the right hand and the stomach with a weapon.