Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2022 Supreme(HP) 697

IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH AT SHIMLA
SANDEEP SHARMA, J.
Ajay Grover – Appellant
Versus
State of Himachal Pradesh - Respondent
Cr.MP(M) No. 2270 of 2022
Decided on : 01-12-2022

Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant :Mr. Ajay Kochhar, Mr. Bhupinder Ahuja and Mr. Arun Grover, Advocates.
For the Respondent:Mr. Narender Guleria, Ms. Svaneel Jaswal, Deputy Advocate General.

Point of Law : Grant of Bail - a humane attitude is required to be adopted by a judge, while dealing with an application for remanding a suspect or an accused person to police custody or judicial custody.

Headnote:
Indian Penal Code, 1860 - Sections 304, 308, 328, 420, 468, 471, 201, 109 and 120-B - HP Excise Act - Sections 39, 40 and 41 – Criminal Procedure Code,1973 - Section 439 – Offence of Culpable homicide – Cheating – Criminal conspiracy – Charged - Consuming spurious country made liquor, seven persons lost their lives and 14 others got sick/injured - During investigation, it transpired that present bail petitioner, who was one of the partner of M/s Aakash Chemicals, had supplied 170 drums/12000 ltrs of spirit through co-accused to alleged manufacturers of country made liquor - As per prosecution, present bail petitioner called co-accused on mobile number to inform that one truck containing 12000 ltrs of spirit is coming to Baddi, which he may store in store of M/s Aakash Chemicals - Co-accused allegedly unloaded spirit with assistance of person and stored 170 drums in store of M/s Aakash Chemicals - Whether persons died or fell ill after having consumed spurious liquor supplied by bail petitioner or not. [Para 17]
Finding of Court : If investigating officer does not find it necessary to arrest an accused person during investigations, a strong case should be made out for placing that person in judicial custody after a charge sheet is filed - Similarly, it is important to ascertain whether accused was participating in investigations to satisfaction of investigating officer and was not absconding or not appearing when required by he investigating officer - Surely, if an accused is not hiding from investigating officer or is hiding due to some genuine and expressed fear of being victimised, it would be a factor that a judge would need to consider in an appropriate case - It is also necessary for the judge to consider whether the accused is a first-time offender or has been accused of other offences and if so, nature of such offences and his or her general conduct - It is clarified that if petitioner misuses liberty or violates any of conditions imposed upon him, investigating agency shall be free to move Court for cancellation of bail - Any observations made hereinabove shall not be construed to be a reflection on merits of case and shall remain confined to disposal of this application alone.
Result : Petition stands accordingly disposed of.

JUDGMENT :

Sandeep Sharma, J.

Bail petitioner namely Ajay Grover, who is behind the bars since 26.1.2022, has approached this court in the instant proceedings filed under Section 439 Cr.PC, for grant of regular bail, in case FIR No. 15/2022 dated 19.1.2022, registered at Police Station Sundernagar, District Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, under Sections 304, 308, 328, 420, 468, 471, 201, 109 and 120-B of IPC and Sections 39, 40 and 41 of the HP Excise Act.

2. Pursuant to order dated 21.11.2022, respondent-state has filed the status report. ASI Dev Raj, PS Sundernagar, has also come present with the records. Records perused and returned.

3. Close scrutiny of record/status report reveals that on 19.1.2022 at 2:30 pm, Police Station Balh, after having received telephonic information from the Ner Chawk hospital that few persons after having consumed spurious country made liquor have fallen ill, visited the Hospital at Ner Chowk and recorded the statement of complainant Sohan Singh i.e. brother of deceased Lal Singh under Section 154 CPC, who alleged that on 17.1.2022 at 7:00AM, his deceased brother had gone to Slappar driving tipper, but on 18.1.2022, it transpired that his brother has fallen ill after consuming spurious liquor. He alleged that though deceased Lal Singh was taken to hospital for treatment, but he unfortunately died. He alleged that few other persons, who had also consumed country made spurious liquor have also expired and some of them are under treatment. In the aforesaid background, FIR detailed herein above, came to be lodged against the various persons named in the FIR, including the present bail petitioner. In nutshell, case of the prosecution is that on consuming the spurious country made liquor, seven persons lost their lives and 14 others got sick/injured. During investigation, it transpired that present bail petitioner, who was one of the partner of the M/s Aakash Chemicals, had supplied 170 drums/12000 ltrs of spirit through co-accused Santosh Kumar to the alleged manufacturers of country made liquor. As per prosecution, present bail petitioner called co-accused Santosh on mobile number to inform that one truck containing 12000 ltrs of spirit is coming to Baddi, which he may store in the store of M/s Aakash Chemicals. Co-accused Santosh Kumar allegedly unloaded the spirit with the assistance of person namely Bir Singh, Ashok, Mahender and Jamura and thereafter, stored 170 drums in the store of M/s Aakash Chemicals. Subsequently, above named Santosh Kumar allegedly sold the spirit in different quantities on different dates to different accused persons, viz. Gaurav Minhas alias Goru, Virender alias Gagan, Gurdev and Anil Kumar alias Manu etc., for manufacturing spurious country liquor. Since on 4.01.2022, Gurmit Singh driver of the co-accused Virender died after consuming the spirit, Virender Singh asked Santosh Kumar for testing the spirit contained in the drums. At his insistence, co-accused Santosh sent one litre spirit sample obtained from these drums for testing to ‘Auriga Lab under the name of M/s Yamuna Beverages Pvt. Ltd. Report received by co-accused Santosh Kumar in this regard on 12.1.2022, was forwarded through whatsapp to the present bail petitioner, who confirmed the report to be correct. Subsequently, using this spirit, the accused Virender alias Gagan illegally manufactured spurious country liquor marked “Santra” and supplied in Salapar area causing deaths of several persons and injuries to various others. Since spirit, with which spurious country made liquor came to be manufactured, was supplied allegedly at the instructions of the petitioner, he alongwith other persons also came to be named in the FIR. There are total thirty accused named in the FIR and out of which, 18 accused already stand enlarged on bail. Present bail petitioner had also approached this Court by way of Cr.MPM No. 923 of 2022, but same was dismissed on 22.7.2022 on the ground that there is nothing available on record to suggest th