The petitioner is entitled to statutory bail after 70 days in custody without a charge sheet, establishing an indefeasible right under Section 187(2) of the BNSS.

ORDER

Dated this the 15th day of November, 2024

The application is filed under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita , 2024, by the first accused in Crime No. 21/2024 of Ottappalam Forest Range Office, Palakkad, which is registered against two accused persons for allegedly committing the offences punishable under Sections 2 (2), 2(11), 2(14), 2(16), 2(31), 9, 39, 49, 50, and 51 of the Wildlife (Protection Act), 1972. The petitioner was remanded to judicial custody on 07.09.2024.

2. The crux of the prosecution case is that: on 07.09.2024, two accused persons were found in conscious possession of six pieces of ivory. The accused persons were arrested on the spot. Thus, the accused have committed the above offences.

3. Heard; Sri. Manzoorali, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Smt. Pushpalatha.M.K., the learned Senior Public Prosecutor.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is totally innocent of the accusations levelled against him. There is no material to substantiate the petitioner's involvement in the crime. The Investigating Officer has deliberately implicated the petitioner as an accused without any cogent material. In any given case, the petitioner has been in judicial custody for the last more than 70 days, the investigation in the case is not complete, the offences alleged against the petitioner are punishable up to a period seven years, but the charge sheet has not been filed. Hence, the petitioner is entitled to be released on statutory bail.

Hence, the application may be allowed.

5. The learned Public Prosecutor opposed the application. She submitted that the petitioner has committed a very serious crime. The investigation in the case is in progress. She also stated that if the petitioner is let off on bail, there is every likelihood of him tampering with the evidence and intimidating the witnesses. Therefore, the application may be dismissed. Nonetheless, she did not dispute the fact that the investigation in the case is not complete and the charge-sheet has not been filed.

6. The prosecution allegation is that the petitioner and with the second accused were found in conscious possession of six pieces of ivory. They were arrested on the spot and remanded to judicial custody. Indisputably, the petitioner has been in judicial custody for the last more than 70 days, the offences alleged against the petitioner are punishable up to seven years, the investigation in the cases is not complete, and the charge sheet has not been filed.

7. In the aforementioned context, it is apposite to refer to Section 187 (1) to (4) of the BNSS , which reads as follows:

187. Procedure when investigation cannot be completed in twenty-four hours. (1) Whenever any person is arrested and detained in custody, and it appears that the investigation cannot be completed within the period of twenty-four hours fixed by section 58, and there are grounds for believing that the accusation or information is well-founded, the officer in charge of the police station or the police officer making the investigation, if he is not below the rank of sub-inspector, shall forthwith transmit to the nearest Magistrate a copy of the entries in the diary hereinafter specified relating to the case, and shall at the same time forward the accused to such Magistrate.

(2) The Magistrate to whom an accused person is forwarded under this section may, irrespective of whether he has or has no jurisdiction to try the case, after taking into consideration whether such person has not been released on bail or his bail has been cancelled, authorise, from time to time, the detention of the accused in such custody as such Magistrate thinks fit, for a term not exceeding fifteen days in the whole, or in parts, at any time during the initial forty days or sixty days out of detention period of sixty days or ninety days, as the case may be, as provided in sub-section (3), and if he has no jurisdiction to try the case or commit it f