IMPORTANT POINT
Grant of anticipatory bail – Although grant of bail is a discretionary exercise, Courts must be cautious to exercise this discretion judiciously – Balance has to be struck to protect individual liberty of accused as well as to secure an environment that is free from any fear in hearts of victim of alleged perpetrators.

ORDER

Criminal Appeal @ SLP (Crl.) No.(s) 17805 of 2024:

1. Leave granted.

2. The present appeal on behalf of the appellant-complainant assails order dated 12th March, 2024, passed by the High Court of Judicature at Patna in Criminal Miscellaneous No. 14816 of 2024. The High Court has granted anticipatory bail to respondent nos. 2 and 3 (“accused-respondents”) in FIR, bearing no. 773 of 2023 dated 16th December, 2023, registered under Section 302 read with Section 34 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (“IPC”) and Section 27 of Arms Act, 1959.

3. Brief facts, in a nutshell, relevant for the disposal of the present appeal are stated hereinunder:

3.1. On 16th December, 2023 the appellant-complainant submitted a written complaint before Police Station, Gopalpur alleging, inter alia, that his wife Kumari Pushpa (“deceased”) was shot dead on the same day at about 03:30 P.M. The deceased was employed as a health worker at Primary Health Center, Pandarak.

3.2. According to the appellant, his wife was killed at the behest of named accused persons, including accused-respondents, who had been continuously threatening and harassing the deceased to extort money. On account of the continuous threats as meted, the deceased had already paid lakhs of rupees to them. Finally, when the deceased was unable to meet the extortion demands, the accused got her eliminated by employing contract killers.

3.3. The police thus, registered the present FIR dated 16th December, 2023, against five accused persons, including accused-respondents. The investigation was commenced immediately.

3.4. Upon investigation, the police examined a CCTV footage from the camera installed in a shop near the place of occurrence. In the video, the deceased was seen walking with a middle-aged man from Bhelwara turn at around 03:22 P.M. when two persons riding on a bike with helmets came there, shot the deceased and fled away.

3.5. The police claimed to have achieved a breakthrough with the arrest of one Vishal Kumar, who gave a confessional statement stating that family members of the accused-respondents had hired one Bittu Kumar for a sum of Rs. 2,40,000/- for the murder of the deceased.

3.6. During the investigation, it was also revealed that it is the modus operandi of the accused to lend money at exorbitant interest rates of about 35% per month to individuals. To recover this amount, the accused would then coerce the borrowers into taking loans from other moneylenders and forcibly take possession of the subsequently borrowed money.

3.7. Apprehending their arrest, the accused-respondents preferred anticipatory bail application before the High Court. The High Court vide order dated 12th March, 2024, has allowed the anticipatory bail application. Aggrieved, the appellant-complainant is before us.

4. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the material available on record.

5. At the outset, we are unable to side with the reasoning ascribed by the High Court to grant anticipatory bail to the accused-respondents for the reasons discussed hereinafter.

5.1. In the impugned order, the High Court has not given any cogent reason for granting anticipatory bail to accused-respondents. It appears that the High Court was influenced by the threefold contention of learned counsel for accused-respondents. First, the accused-respondents are women with clean antecedents. Second, it was highly improbable that the deceased who was working as health worker would give lakhs of rupees in extortion. In fact, the deceased had borrowed some amount from accused no. 1 (Murari Prasad) for purchasing land and were not returning it back. Third, it was for this reason that the complainant saw an opportunity to falsely implicate the entire family of the accused-respondents.

5.2. In the present case, the accused-respondents have been named in the FIR registered at the behest of the appellant. The High Court has not fairly appreciated the gravity of the accusations levelled against the accused-respon