The right to default bail under Section 167(2) of the CrPC is an indefeasible right and not a statutory right. It is a part of the procedure established by law under Article 21 of the Constitution.

JUDGMENT :

1. These four applications arise out of one and the same First Information Report and involve identical questions on law and facts. Hence, they are decided by this common judgment.

2. Challenge in these four applications filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as “the Code”) is to the orders dated 08.01.2021 and 21.01.2021 passed below application filed under Section 20(2)(b) of The Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organized Crime Act, 2015 (hereinafter referred to as “the GUJCTOC”) by the Court of learned Principal District and Sessions Judge, Special Court (GUJCTOC) at Rajkot in the case of Jamnagar City “A” Division Police Station FIR No.11202008202186 whereby, the said application was allowed and an additional period of 90 days was granted for concluding the investigation.

2.1 Prior to these captioned applications, Criminal Appeal Nos.212/2021, 214/2021, 215/2021 and 315/2021 were preferred to challenge the impugned orders. It was jointly stated by learned Public Prosecutor Mr. Mitesh Amin appearing with learned APP Mr. Pranav Trivedi that the impugned orders were not appealable as per Section 13 of the GUJCTOC and thus, permission was granted vide common order on 09.03.2021 to convert the same under Section 482 of the Code.

3. The facts, in a nutshell, giving rise to the filing of the present applications are as under:-

The Office of the Superintendent of Police, Jamnagar received a secret information that one Jaysukh Muljibhai Ranpariya @ Jayesh Patel (accused No.1) is involved in running and operating an organized crime syndicate in Jamnagar involving extortion, land grabbing, contract killing, money laundering, etc. with the use or threat of violence and criminal intimidation. Such secret information was recorded vide Entry No.03 of 2020 dated 30.09.2020 in the Register maintained for such purpose. The information revealed that the crime syndicate operated by Jaysukh Muljibhai Ranpariya targeted businessmen especially land owners and realtors / developers by intimidating / threatening them with physical injury and / or threat to life with the object of deriving monetary gains. The information further revealed that the accused used voice calls and mobile applications like Whatsapp as well as other VOIP applications to make calls to target their victims. The secret information also revealed the names of some alleged members of the syndicate. On the basis of the secret information so received, the Police Inspector, City ‘A’ Division Police Station, Jamnagar registered the impugned complaint being FIR No.11202008202186 for offences punishable under Sections 3(1), 3(2), 3(3), 3(4), 3(5) & 4 of GUJCTOC and Sections 120B, 386, 387, 506(1) and 506(2) of Indian Penal Code on 15.10.2021 against fourteen accused. Six amongst them came to be arrested while the remaining are absconding. By order dated 29.10.2020 passed by the Special Court constituted under the GUJCTOC, the six arrested accused were sent to different Jails at Vadodara, Sabarmati-Ahmedabad and Lajpore-Surat.

4. On arrest of the applicants-accused persons, the Special Court granted their remand and on conclusion of the remand period, they were sent to judicial custody. The applicants had preferred bail applications under Section 439 of Cr.P.C. before the Special Court; however, the same were rejected. Before the expiry of ninety days from the date of arrest, the Public Prosecutor before the Special Court preferred applications under Section 20(2)(b) of the GUJCTOC in each case seeking extension of the period of investigation by ninety days. The particulars in each case, which are relevant for our purpose, are shown hereunder in a tabular form:-