The right to a speedy trial under Article 21 of the Constitution of India justifies the grant of bail when incarceration is prolonged, the accused has no criminal antecedents, and parity exists with co-accused who have already been released.

Rajesh Bhardwaj, J. (ORAL)

1. Present second petition has been filed praying for the grant of regular bail to the petitioner in case bearing FIR No.60, dated 02.07.2023, under Section 302, 341, 148, 149 IPC, registered at Police Station Nakodar Sadar, District Jalandhar Rural.

2. Succinctly, the facts of the case are that FIR in the present case was got registered on the statement of complainant, namely, Kiranjit Kaur. As per prosecution verison, on 01.07.2023 at about 11:00 P.M, her husband Kuljinder Singh had gone to the fields falling on Ladhewali to Rasulpur Road for tilling the fields with tractor. The above said land is visible from the house of complainant. At about 12:45 AM on 02.07.2023, she heard hue and cry. She came out of the house and saw that when her husband came on road on the tractor, accused persons stopped the tractor with their cars. She along with her brother-in-law Balwinder Singh went at the spot on a separate tractor, where they saw that one car without number and another car bearing No.PB33-E-2654 and one scooter bearing No.PB08-DZ-3453 were parked there. Her husband was sitting on the tractor and some persons were attacking him with weapons. When she and Balwinder Singh came near the place of occurrence, they saw that accused Gurdeep Singh gave sword blow on the right thigh of her husband and another blow of sword at the back of his head. Thereafter, they brought him down from the tractor. Accused Vicky gave a datar blow at the backside of the head of her husband and accused Ravinder Singh gave many blows with the reverse side of the datar on his different body parts. Thereafter, her husband fell down on the ground and accused Varinder Singh also gave datar blows on his various body parts. Accused Rajat and Mohit gave kick blows to him. Her brother-in-law Balwinder Singh tried to save him from the clutches of accused and during this process, accused Gurdeep Singh gave a datar blow on the right hand of Balwinder Singh. Accused Vicky gave a blow with the reverse side of the datar, which hit on the left arm of Balwinder Singh. Complainant raised alarm and accused persons fled away from the spot on car bearing No.PB33-E-2654 and Activa Scooter bearing No.PB08-DZ-3453. Thereafter, complainant called her brother Arvinder Singh and father-in-law Tarsem Singh at the spot and they took injured persons to the hospital. During treatment, her husband succumbed to the injuries. On the basis of above statement, present FIR was registered. During investigation, accused Gurdeep Singh, Vicky, Varinder and Rajat were arrested. During interrogation, accused Rajat suffered a disclosure statement, wherein he disclosed that at the time of occurrence, Rajiv and Manni were also accompanying them and above said persons had also caused injuries to deceased. Complainant Kiranjit Kaur also suffered a supplementary statement on 05.07.2023, wherein she stated that due to shock caused by the death of her husband, she did not mention the name of Rajiv and Manni in her initial statement dated 02.07.2023 and at the time of occurrence in question, above persons had also caused injuries to her husband. Thereafter, Rajiv and co-accused Manni were nominated in this FIR through DDR No.19 dated 05.07.2023. The present petitioner was arrested on 02.07.2023. The petitioner approached the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Jalandhar praying for the grant of regular bail. However, after hearing both the sides and finding no merit in the same, the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Jalandhar, declined the bail