SC grants bail to man despite murder co-accused absconding
The court ruled that an accused being held in Yerawada central jail cannot be denied bail if the co-accused was absconding.
The Supreme Court (SC) bench comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice K Vinod Chandran, issued the order on June 26, stating, "Barring the co-accused, who is absconding, most of the other accused have been granted bail.
We are of the view that the appellant/accused Koli cannot be denied regular bail for the conduct of the co-accused."
The court noted that Koli was granted Covid bail for around two years, but he later surrendered before the jail.
Even then, Koli underwent actual incarceration of more than five years. "The charges in the murder case have not been not framed, and the trial has not commenced. In such circumstances, we are of the view that a case for the grant of bail has been made out by Koli," the court observed.
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Following the directive from the apex court, Koli was produced before the sessions court in Pune. It ordered his release on bail on the condition to remain present for trial.
Koli was released from jail on July 3.
The Yerawada police had arrested Koli on January 10, 2019, with six others on the charge of fatally assaulting Sandip Deokar, a 55-year-old money lender from Yerawada, on January 6 in Khadki because of previous enmity. The prosecution had prayed to reject Koli's bail because investigations revealed that he bludgeoned Deokar with a stone (tile). Koli filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court after the Bombay high court rejected his bail plea on February 24.
Lawyer Sana Raees Khan, representing Koli, argued that the inefficiency of the investigating agency to arrest the co-accused cannot be a ground to curtail the liberty of her client. Khan submitted that the information given by eyewitnesses that Koli bludgeoned the victim to death with a stone did not corroborate with the post-mortem report.
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