Calcutta High CourtCRM (DB)/1971/2024rejected

Raja Khan @ Raja v. The State Of West Bengal

2024-07-10Hon'Ble Justice Arijit Banerjee,Hon'Ble Justice Apurba Sinha Ray2 pages

10-07-2024 (ct. no.28) KOLE CRM (DB) 1971 of 2024 In re: An application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in connection with Chanchal Police Station Case No. 1208 of 2022 dated 09.10.2022 under Sections 302/201 of Indian Penal Code.

- A n d - In the matter of : Raja Khan @ Raja .... Petitioner.

Mr. B. Bhattacharyya, Mr. S. Purakastya, ... For the Petitioner.

Mr. Joydeep Biswas, Ms. Diksha Ghosh, ... For the State.

The charge is of murder and secreting evidence. The petitioner is the husband of the victim lady. The petitioner says that he has been falsely implicated. There is no reason why he would murder his wife. He is in custody for one year and nine months. Only yesterday (09.07.2024) examination of the first prosecution witness started. There are 28 witnesses named in the charge sheet. It is anybody's guess when the trial will conclude. He should be enlarged on bail. Learned Advocate for the State strongly opposes the prayer for bail. He draws our attention to statements of witnesses recorded under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal procedure. He further draws to our attention to the post mortem report which corroborates the prosecution case, prima facie. On an overall assessment of the material on record and the possible extent of complicity of the petitioner in the alleged

crime, although the petitioner is in custody for quite some time, we are not inclined to allow the prayer for bail at this stage. CRM (DB) 1971 of 2024 is, thus, dismissed.

However, since the petitioner has been in custody for a lengthy period of time, we direct the learned Trial Court to expedite the trial to the fullest extent possible and conclude the same as early as possible without granting unnecessary adjournments to either of the parties and if necessary by fixing frequent schedules for examination.

All parties shall act in terms of server copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court. ( Apurba Sinha Ray, J. ) ( Arijit Banerjee, J. )