JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Sri Nazrul Islam Jafri (Senior Advocate) assisted by Sri Deepak Singh and Sri Shiva Kant Dixit, learned counsel for the applicant, Sri Manish Goyal, learned Additional Advocate General assisted by Sri Abhijeet Mukherjee for the State.

2. Perused the record.

3. Present bail application has been filed on behalf of the applicant Jay Kant Bajpai @ Jay in Case Crime No. 192 of 2020, under Sections 147, 148, 149, 332, 353, 333, 307, 302, 396, 412, 120-B, 34, 504, 506 of I.P.C.; Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and Section 3/4 of Explosive Substance Act, Police Station Chaubeypur, District Kanpur Nagar with the prayer to enlarge him on bail during the trial.

4. As per the version of the prosecution, case crime No. 191/2020 u/s 147,148,504,323,364,342,307 IPC and Section 7 Criminal Law Amendment Act was registered at Police Station Chaubepur, District Kanpur Outer on 02.07.2020 at 23:52 PM against Vikas Dubey and 4 other named accused on the basis of First Information Report lodged by one Rahul Tiwari. He alleged that on 01.07.2020 at 12:30 PM, the accused beat him up. The accused kidnapped him and confined him in a room. He somehow escaped from there. When he reached Vikroo turn, Bela road, Vikas Dubey fired upon him indiscriminately. He did not sustain any injury.

5. In order to arrest the named accused in the aforesaid FIR, the police party led by SHO Chaubepur, Vinay Kumar Tiwari, reached Vikroo. When they reached at the gate of the house of accused Vikas Dubey, named and unnamed accused in the present F.I.R. fired indiscriminately upon the police officers with firearm weapons. In this heart wrenching incident, 8 police personnel were brutally done to death including Circle officer and 7 police personnel got serious injuries. Accused persons looted the arms from the police personnel. The first information report of the incident was lodged by Sub Inspector Vinay Kumar Tiwari, the then SHO, P.S. Chaubepur, District Kanpur Outer on 03.07.2020 at 5:30 AM against 21 named and 60-70 unnamed accused.

6. During the course of the investigation, on the basis of the statement of the main accused Vikas Dubey, it was revealed that the applicant was present in a meeting with Vikas Dubey and other accused persons in the evening of 02.07.2020 to carve out a plan to commit the murder of police persons who were scheduled to approach the slain leader Vikas Dubey to arrest him. The applicant had provided money and ammunition to the main accused Vikas Dubey. To provide safe passage to slain accused Vikas Dubey to perform journey, the applicant promised to provide vehicles after killing the police party.

7. These facts were narrated by Vikas Dubey, the main accused of Vikroo massacre, when he was being brought to Kanpur Nagar from Ujjain, where he was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Police. He was interrogated by the Investigating Officer during his journey from Ujjain to Kanpur Nagar. The statement of Vikas Dubey was noted in the case diary by the investigating officer. Apart from this, co-accused Prashant Kumar Shukla and Vipul Dubey also stated active involvement of the present applicant in the Vikroo massacare. The statement of the applicant was also recorded by the investigating officer in which he admitted that he had provided money and ammunitions to Vikas Dubey. He also provided vehicle to him for his safe journey after the incident.

8. It has been argued by the learned counsel for the applicant that he is innocent and he has been falsely implicated in the present case. The applicant is not named in the first information report. None of the witness referred the involvement of the applicant in the incident that happened on 02.07.2020 at Vikroo. The applicant has been made accused in the present case only on the basis of his confessional statement and the statement of co-accused Prashant Shukla which were recorded in police custody. The statements of applicant and co-accused Prashant Shukla are not admissible in evidence and