Court No. - 44

Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 1744 of 2012

Appellant :- Raju @ Bijali @ Ravindra

Respondent :- State of U.P.

Counsel for Appellant :- Vijay Singh Sengar

Counsel for Respondent :- Govt. Advocate

Hon'ble Ashwani Kumar Mishra,J.

Hon'ble Rajnish Kumar,J.

In Re;Criminal Misc.Bail Application No.138561 of 2012

This is first bail application filed on behalf of the appellant-

Raju @ Bijali @ Ravindra, who has been sentenced life

imprisonment in Special Case No.53 of 2008, Case Crime

No.09 of 2006 and 10 of 2006, under Sections 147, 148,

307/149, 302/149 IPC and 27 Arms Act, Police Station-

Bithauli, District-Etawah.

We have perused the records. Although learned A.G.A. for the

State is present but none appears for the appellant.

The appellant has been arrested on 14.06.2006 and is in jail

ever since then. Period as suffered by the appellant in

incarceration is more than 15 years even without remission.

It is not pointed out by learned A.G.A. that the appellant has

any criminal history.

Order of the Supreme Court dated 25^th February, 2022 in

Criminal Appeal No. 308/2022 arising out of SLP (Crl.) No.

4633 of 2021 (Saudan Singh Vs. State of U.P.) is placed before

us, wherein following directions have been issued:-

"We have put to learned AAG and the learned counsel for the High Court

that a list should be prepared of all cases where the person has served out a

sentence of 14 years, is not a repeat offender, and in any case if in these

cases at one go bail can be granted and cases remitted for examination

under the Uttar Pradesh Prisoners Release on Probation Rules, 1938. In all

these cases, there is a high possibility that if these people are released, they

may not be even interested in prosecuting their appeals.

We are quite hopeful that the High Court will adopt the aforesaid practice

and thus prevent the Supreme Court to be troubled with such matters"

Perusal of the aforesaid order would go to show that appellant

is entitled to be released on bail, pending disposal of the appeal,

keeping in view the fact that the appellant has already served

more than 15 years' sentence.

Learned AGA states that the appeal itself may be heard but

could not dispute that in connection with the present case, the

appellant has suffered incarceration of more than 15 years.

In view of the above quoted observations in the order passed by

the Apex Court, dated 25.2.2022, in Saudan Singh's case (supra)

and there being no dispute that the appellant by now has served

over 15 years of imprisonment in connection with the case,

without expressing any opinion on the merits and without

prejudice to the right of the appellant to pursue this appeal or

pray for remission as per law, we are of the view that the

appellant is entitled to be released on bail.

Let the accused appellant- appellant-Raju @ Bijali @ Ravindra,

who has been sentenced life imprisonment in Special Case

No.53 of 2008, Case Crime No.09 of 2006 and 10 of 2006,

under Sections 147, 148, 307/149, 302/149 IPC and 27 Arms

Act, Police Station-Bithauli, District-Etawah be released on bail

in the above case on furnishing a personal bond and two

sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the Chief

Judicial Magistrate, Etawah subject to furnishing undertaking

that he will co-operate in the hearing of the appeal and deposit

half of the fine within six weeks from the date of release.

On acceptance of his bail bonds, the lower court shall transmit

photostat copies thereof to this Court for being kept on the

record of this appeal.

Since none has appeared for the appellant, we direct the

Registry to communicate our order to the appellant through Jail

Superintendent concerned.

Office is directed to get the Paper Book prepared and the appeal

shall be listed immediately thereafter.

Order Date :- 27.4.2022

Banswar

Digitally signed by RAM NARESH

BANSWAR

Date: 2022.04.27 18:34:05 IST

Reason:

Location: