( 1 ) SATYAVIR Singh Rathi is an Assistant Commissioner of Police. He has applied for anticipatory bail in a case registered by the C. B. I. under sections 302, 307 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

( 2 ) EXORDIALLY speaking, the point for discussion is short but its legal import and human portent are deap meriting examination in some detail. However, before I proceed to do so, a thumb nail sketch of the sequence of events would be necessary to get a hang of the core of the case. And, before that too what needs to be noticed is that the investigation was first conducted by the Delhi Police and then taken over by the C. B. I. I have thought it fit to mention it since the Delhi Police has come up with its own version which the C. B. I. paints as palpably false. I shall be dealing with both the versions in their necessary detail.

( 3 ) FIRST, the version of the Delhi Police.

( 4 ) THE Delhi Police was on the look out for a person by the name of Mohd. Yasin who was wanted in as many as twenty criminal cases of serious nature like robbery, dacoity, murder and attempted murder. On March 31, 1997 a police party headed by Inspector Anil Kumar spotted a bearded