Manu Laskar@Manu Molla v. The State Of West Bengal

CALCUTTA HIGH COURT

IN THE CIRCUIT BENCH AT JALPAIGURI

21.02.2025 Court No.01 rpan / 16 CRM (DB) 74 of 2025 In Re:- An application for bail under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 filed in connection with Phansidewa Police Station Case no. 337 of 2023 dated 13.10.2023 under Sections 465/467/471/474/120B of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 14A of the Foreigners Act And In Re : Manu Laskar @ Manu Molla - Petitioner Mr. Sudip Guha, Mr. Sandip Guha Roy, Mr. Ananda Paul ... for the Petitioner.

Mr. Kallol Acharjee, Mr. Tapan Bhattacharjee ... for the State.

Mr. Druti Roy ... for the de facto/victim girl.

1. It is said by the learned advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioner that this accused petitioner is in custody for 495 days. In the meantime, chargesheet has been submitted by the prosecuting agency after completion of investigation. Charge has not yet been framed by the Trial Court. This accused petitioner is the citizen of this country. The allegations, as made in the complaint, are false and baseless. Under such circumstances, no more custodial detention of the petitioner is required in connection with the instant case. So, this accused petitioner may be enlarged on bail on any stringent

condition considering his long period of detention behind the bar.

2. Learned advocate for the State raises objections. Our attention is drawn to the report submitted by the Officerin-Charge, Phansidewa Police Station, Darjeeling from which it would be revealed that this accused petitioner is the citizen of Bangladesh and he had valid passport of Bangladesh and it was seized from him. He prays that this accused petitioner may not be enlarged on bail.

3. Perused the materials on record and have gone through the report submitted by the Officer-in-Charge, Phansidewa Police Station, Darjeeling. It appears prima facie from the said report that this accused petitioner is a foreign national and allegedly entered into this country without any valid document. Keeping in mind the seriousness of this offence and the extent of his complicity in the crime we are not inclined to enlarged on bail.

4. In view thereof, the application for bail, being CRM (DB) 74 of 2025 is rejected at this stage.

5. All parties shall act on the server copies of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court. (Prasenjit Biswas, J.) (Tapabrata Chakraborty, J.)