Bikram Mukherjee v. The State Of West Bengal And ANR

19.06.2025 Serial no. 70 [G.S.D] CALCUTTA HIGH COURT

IN THE CIRCUIT BENCH AT JALPAIGURI

CRR 258 of 2025 In the matter of : Bikram Banerjee ... Petitioner(s) Mr. Dr. Arjun Chowdhury Ms. P. Dutta Chowdhury Ms. Riya Agarwal Mr. Mantu Mondal Mr. Bappaditya Roy Ms. S. Parveen ... for the Petitioner(s) Mr. A. S. Chakraborty, ld. APP Mr. Aniruddha Biswas ... for the State-respondent(s) The petitioner has been convicted and sentenced for a term of five years along with a fine of Rs.25,000/-, i/d, further imprisonment for a period of six months for the commission of offence under Section 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

There is a further direction by the learned trial court while awarding the sentence that 50% of the fine amount should be paid to Jaldapara Wild Life Division. Be that as it may, being aggrieved by the Judgment and Order of conviction and sentence passed by the learned CJM, Alipurduar in connection with CR Case No. 332 of 2024,

the petitioner preferred an application before the learned Dist. & Sessions Judge, Alipurduar. The learned Sessions Judge by an order dated 10.04.2025, was pleased to reject the prayer for bail during pendency of the appeal, hence, the present revisional application has been preferred before this court by the petitioner.

Mr. Biswas, learned advocate for the State, opposes the prayer for bail and supports the order passed by the learned Sessions Judge.

I have considered the period of sentence so imposed by the learned trial court.

Having considered the same to be a term imprisonment and the petitioner already having suffered about 14 months in custody, I am of the view that during pendency of the appeal the petitioner should be released on bail.

Accordingly, the petitioner be released on bail upon furnishing bond of Rs.20,000/- (Rs. Twenty Thousand only) with two sureties of like amount each, one of whom must be local, to the satisfaction of the learned CJM, Alipurduar. If on bail, once in a month, the petitioner shall report to the office of the learned CJM Court, Alipurduar and obtain an acknowledgement. Such acknowledgment, in every two months, be submitted to the office of the learned CJM, Alipurduar as also to the office of the learned Appellate

Court. This condition would continue till disposal of the appeal.

With the aforesaid observations, CRR 258 of 2025 is disposed of.

Pending application(s), if any, is also disposed of. Parties to act on a server copy of this order duly collected from the official website of the Hon'ble High Court, Calcutta. (Tirthankar Ghosh, J.)