IMPORTANT POINTS
The cancellation of bail granted to an accused will have an impact on the bail granted to co-accused also.

JUDGMENT :

Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, J

1. Permission to file the Special Leave Petitions granted.

2. Leave granted.

3. A batch of five Special Leave Petitions (SLP) under Article 136 of the Constitution has arisen from the orders passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad granting bail to the five respondent-accused, namely:

(i) Kiranpal;

(ii) Sundar;

(iii) Rakesh;

(iv) Satish; and

(v) Dharmendra.

4. The circumstances which have led to the registration of the first information report¹[“FIR”] being Case Crime No 414 of 2019 against the accused under Sections 147, 148, 149, 302, 307, 323, 342 and 508 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 at Police Station Rabupura, District Gautam Budh Nagar may be adverted to briefly. The appellant who is the original complainant had two sons, Gajendra aged 34 years and Akash aged 22 years, who were killed in the course of an incident which took place on 29 November 2019. Two other persons, Sunil and Jeetu, out of the four others present along with the deceased, are alleged to have been seriously injured in the course of the incident. The FIR was lodged on 30 November 2019 at 1743 hours against eight accused persons, five of which are before this Court in these proceedings. The FIR refers to the fact that there was an enmity between the accused and the complainant and his sons due to “party politics”. The FIR mentions an earlier incident on 24 October 2019, when five of the accused (Sundar, Dharmendra, Monu, Kiranpal and Ompal) had attacked Akash at Chambe in Mirzapur with an intent to kill him. Akash had allegedly sustained a head injury after being assaulted with an iron rod and a fire-arm injury in respect of which a first information report was lodged. Two of the accused (Rakesh and Satish) had also allegedly assaulted the appellant’s sons in the morning of 29 November 2019 and threatened them with death. The incident concerning the present case is alleged to have taken place at night, on 29 November 2019. One of the deceased, Gajendra, the son of the appellant, was conducting a gym and after closing his establishment, he was proceeding in his vehicle from village Rabupura to village Rampur Bangar together with Akash, who was in another vehicle. Two other persons, Sunil and Deepak are alleged to have been in a third vehicle. Jeetu and Subhash were proceeding in a fourth vehicle. When these persons reached a particular spot at around 8:30 pm, their passage was found to be blocked by a bullock cart. The eight accused were allegedly present at the spot armed with rifles, guns and country-made pistols for an ambush. They are alleged to have surrounded the four vehicles with an intention of assaulting the appellant’s sons. Accused Mulla is alleged to have fired with his rifle at Gajendra, while accused Bhupan is alleged to have fired with his rifle at Akash. Both Gajendra and Akash were killed on the spot. Sunil and Deepak who were in the third vehicle are alleged to have got down after seeing the occurrence. Jeetu and Subash also came out of the fourth vehicle. Among the injured were Sunil and Jeetu. After the FIR was lodged, all the respondent-accused were arrested on 6 December 2019.

5. Pursuant to the registration of the FIR, the investigation by the police was completed and a charge sheet was filed on 09 February 2020 under Sections 147, 148, 149, 307, 323, 326, 341 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 against all the accused and under Section 27 and 30 of the Arms Act against accused Sunder and Mulla.

6. The details of the impugned orders passed by the HC granting bail to the respondent-accused are as follows: