Manindra Rana @ Surubhai @ Surukana And Another v. State Of West Bengal And ANR

29.01.2025 Item no. 18.

Court No.29.

AB (Allowed) CRA (DB) 381 of 2024 In Re: An Application under Section 14A(2) of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in connection with Jamboni Police Station Case No.43 of 2021 Dated 07.05.2021 under Sections 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 3(2)(V) of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act And In the matter of : Manindra Rana @ Surubhai @ Surukana & Anr.

......Petitioners.

Mr. Navanil De, Mr. Shoumilya Majumdar ......for the Petitioners.

Mr. Amajit De, Spl. PP ......for the CBI.

Dictated by Arijit Banerjee, J.

1.

Status Report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, be kept with the records.

2.

From the report we find that the prosecution intends to examine 50 witnesses. Only 1 witness has been examined so far. The petitioners are in custody for more than three and half years.

3.

Opposing the prayer for bail, learned Counsel for CBI says that there is very strong evidence against the petitioners.

4.

We have said time and again that merely having a strong case against the accused person will not justify detaining such person in judicial custody for a long period of time without bringing the trial to its logical Signed By :

APURBA BANDYOPADHYAY High Court of Calcutta 31 st of January 2025 11:20:54 AM

conclusion. The prosecution intends to examine 49 more witnesses in the present case. There is absolutely no possibility of an early conclusion of the trial. 5.

Considering the period of detention of the petitioners i.e. more than three and half years and seeing that there is no possibility of an early conclusion of the trial, without touching the merits of the case and solely on the touchstone of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, we feel constrained to allow the petitioners' prayer for bail. 6.

Accordingly, we direct that the petitioners, namely MANINDRA RANA @ SURUBHAI @ SURUKANA and BIKAL MAHATA shall be released on bail upon furnishing a bond of Rs.10,000/-each, with two sureties of like amount each, one of whom must be local, to the satisfaction of the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jhargram, and on further conditions that they shall not leave the jurisdiction of the Jhargram Police Station except for the purpose of attending court proceedings and shall report to the Officer-in-Charge of the Jhargram Police Station once in a week until further orders.

7.

The petitioners shall appear before the trial court on every date of hearing until further orders and shall not intimidate the witnesses and/or tamper with evidence and/or commit any cognizable offence in any manner whatsoever.

8.

In the event the petitioners fail to adhere to any of the conditions stipulated above without justifiable cause, the trial court shall be at liberty to cancel the petitioners' bail in accordance with law without further reference to this Court.

9.

The application for bail is, accordingly, allowed. 10.

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