Tara Sankar Paul @ Tarasankar Paul v. State Of West Bengal And ANR
16.06.2026 Serial no. 29 [G.S.D] CRM (M) 1339 of 2026 In re : An Application for Bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973/under Section 483 of the BNSS, 2023 in connection with Patuli PS Case No. 232 of 2023 dated 12.10.2023 u/s 366A/370/370A/372/373/419/120B of the IPC read with Sections 4/17 of the POCSO Act and u/s 3/4/5/6/7 of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. -AndIn the matter of : Tara Sankar Paul @ Tarasankar Paul ... Petitioner(s) Mr. Soumya Nag Mr. Aditya Tiwari Ms. N. Chatterjee ... for the Petitioner(s) Mr. Pradip Banerjee Mr. Bankim Pal ... for the State-respondent(s) Learned advocate for the petitioner has drawn the attention of the court to the earlier direction passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in a Special Leave to Appeal [Crl. 7864 of 2025], wherein liberty was granted to the petitioner to renew his prayer for bail before the learned trial court provided there is no progress in the trial within a period of one year.
Additionally, it has been submitted that the petitioner is in custody for two years seven months and till date only one witness has been examined out of the 20 witnesses cited by the prosecution. Learned advocate added that there is no effort on the part of the prosecution to expedite the trial, as such, there is no possibility of the trial being
concluded in the near future. Therefore, learned advocate prays that the petitioner may be released on bail on any stringent condition.
Learned advocate for the State, on the other hand, submits that on two vital dates in the month of July and August, 2025, when the witness was present, accommodation was taken by the defence. According to the learned advocate, so far as the victim is concerned, she has identified the present accused.
The totality of the circumstances as reflected from the records of the case would lead exploitation of a minor girl.
Having considered the gravity of the offence, as a matter of last chance, three months' more time is granted to the State to progress with the case and complete the evidence of the vulnerable witnesses. If the same is not complete, the petitioner would be at liberty to renew his prayer for bail after the aforesaid time period is over. Considering the advance stage of the case, I am not inclined to release the petitioner on bail at this stage. Hence, the prayer for bail of the petitioner is Rejected.
Accordingly, CRM (M) 1339 of 2026 is dismissed. Parties to act on a server copy of this order duly collected from the official website of the Hon'ble High Court, Calcutta.
Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties subject to compliance with all requisite formalities.
(Tirthankar Ghosh, J.)