Bail is denied in cases involving serious charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act due to the appellant's criminal antecedents and status as an absconder, despite claims of parity with co-accused.

JUDGMENT :

RAJEEV RANJAN PRASAD, J.

1. Heard Mr. Balaji Srinivasan, learned counsel assisted by Ms. Akriti Priya and Mr. Niranjan Kumar, learned counsel on behalf of the appellant and Mr. Arvind Kumar, learned Special PP for the National Investigating Agency (in short ‘NIA’).

2. By filing this appeal, the sole appellant has assailed the judgment dated 25.10.2024 passed by learned Special Judge, NIA at Patna (hereinafter referred to as learned trial court) in Special Case No. 02 of 2021 in connection with R.C. Case No. 05 of 2019. Learned trial court has been pleased to reject the prayer for regular bail of the appellant under Section 43 (D) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (in short ‘UA(P) Act’) read with Section 43 9 and 440 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (in short ‘Cr.P.C.’).

Brief Facts of the Case

3. It is alleged that the petitioner is Zonal Commander of Tritiya Prastuti Committee (hereinafter referred to as the ‘TPC’), terrorist gang which is a banned organization. In it’s third supplementary charge sheet filed by the NIA showing this appellant an absconder, the facts revealed in course of investigation which are the basis of filing the charge sheet are stated in paragraph 17.7, 17.8, 17.21, 17.22 and 17.24 of the charge sheet. The appellant has been described as A-8 in the supplementary charge sheet. It is revealed that the appellant is the Zonal Commander of the banned organization and is engaged in extortion of huge levy from coal transporters by putting them in fears of death/grievous hurt in the State of Jharkhand and carries highly sophisticated and prohibited arms for the same purpose. In paragraph 17.11 of the first supplementary charge sheet, it is stated that a consignment of four AK-47 rifles, 4000 live cartridges, 2/3 Magazine of AK-47 rifles was forwarded by Ningkhan Sangatam (A-6) to Mukesh Singh (A-5) and Santosh Singh (A-7) by a truck, bearing registration no. NL07A6508 owned by Ningkhan Sangatam (A-6). It is alleged that these weapons were supplied to Tripurari Singh (A-4) who further delivered them to Bhikhan Ganju (the appellant), the Zonal Commander of TPC. Another consignment of arms and ammunition consisting of one number of 30.06 rifle, 1000 live cartridges of 30.06 bore, 1000 live cartridges of AK-47 rifle, four bullet proof jackets were sent to Mukesh Singh (A-5) and Santosh Singh (A-7) through Suraj (A-1). The investigation revealed that the consignments of January 2018, April 2018 and June 2018 were further delivered to Tripurari Singh by the accused persons and the said consignments were delivered to this appellant by the accused Tripurari Singh (A-4). In its first supplementary charge sheet, NIA has recorded that accused Santosh Kumar @ Santosh Singh (A-7) was remanded in this case on 30^th September, 2019 but Bhikhan Ganju (A-8) is still an absconder.

Submissions on behalf of the Appellant

4. Learned counsel for the appellant has submitted before the this Court that in this case, the appellant has been implicated on the strength of a confessional statement of Tripurari Singh (A-4). It is his submission that the investigation has not established any trail of money against this appellant save and except a revelation by the co-accused Tripurari Singh that this appellant has given him Rs.60,000/- in cash.

5. Learned counsel submits that earlier, the prayer for bail of Tripurari Singh was rejected by this Court vide judgement dated 22.11.2021 in Cr. Appeal DB No. 180 of 2021. However, later on, a learned Coordinate Bench of this Court vide o