IMTIAZ AHMED AND ORS Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The instant bail application has been filed by the applicants/petitioners, seeking grant of bail under Section 498 Cr.P.C in FIR 152/2015 u/s 302/34 RPC of police station Kishatwar.

(2.) It has been stated in the instant bail application that petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 are the real brothers and petitioner No. 3 is their father. All the three petitioners are facing criminal trial in case titled, "Imtiaz Ahmed and ors. Vs. State." for offences under Sections 302/34 RPC, which is pending disposal in the Hon'ble Court of Principal Sessions Judge, Kishtwar. The case was initially registered pursuant to an FIR being No.152/2015, registered at Police Station, Kishtwar on 05th September, 2015 for offences under Section 302/34 RPC. It has also been stated that in the charge-sheet, the prosecution in all has cited 41 witnesses for allegedly proving the charges against the petitioners, besides the material relied upon by way of documents forming part of the charge-sheet. Perusal of the police report clearly shows that besides petitioner No.1, the Investigating Agency had apprehended four other persons, namely, Nishat Ahmed S/o Mohd. Sikander Mir R/o Hullar; Abdul Jabbar S/o Ghulam Rasool Khan R/o Hulla; Muzaffar Hussain and Shehzad Ahmed sons of Shamsdin R/o Hullar, but later on they were left by giving them the benefit under Section 169 Cr. P.C. The accused persons were charge-sheeted by the Court below and eleven witnesses have been examined, which includes four eye witnesses and seven other witnesses. In the aforesaid FIR, the name of only one accused, i.e., petitioner No.1 has been given while the names of other petitioners have not been alleged. There is delay in recording the statement of the witnesses under Section 161 Cr. P.C. It has also come in the investigation that some of the prosecution witnesses, who are the real relatives of the deceased were demanding money from the persons of the area by threatening them to implicate in the murder case if they do not pay the demanded money.

(3.) The petitioners' counsel has placed reliance on the judgments of Hon'ble Supreme Court in cases titled, "Lakshmi Singh Vs. State of Bihar, (1976) AIR SC 2263; "Dharmendra Chandulal Patel Vs. State of Gujarat, (2002) AIR SC 395" and "Krishnegowda and ors. Vs. State of Karnataka by Arkalgud Police, (2017) 3 Supreme 229" as well as on the judgments of this High Court in cases titled, "Ahmad Shiekh and ors. Vs. State, (1975) KashLJ 195; and "Tarlok Chand Mahajan Vs. State, (2005) 3 JKJ 486."