1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH : NAGPUR. Criminal Application No. 3599/2009 ( Shrikant Keshavrao Patrikar and Suraj Mohanrao Masram .vs. State of Mah. ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders or directions Court's or Judge's orders. and Registrar's orders Mr. S.V. Deshmukh, Advocate for Applicants. Mrs. K.S. Joshi, APP for Respondent. CORAM : P.D. KODE, J. DATED : DECEMBER 7, 2009 Heard. By the present application, the applicants/accused apprehending an arrest in connection with Crime No. 165/2009 of Koradi Police Station for commission of offence under Section 302 read with 34 of IPC, have prayed for direction under Section 438 of Cr.P.C. The said crime has been registered in relation with death of one Ravindra Bhalavi who was found dead on 22.6.2009 near Mahadula. The AD No. 27/2009 was registered in respect of the said death. Ultimately upon the FIR lodged by the mother of deceased on 2.11.2009, crime in question has been registered. The learned counsel for the applicants has urged that investigating agency has not been able to collect any material showing the nexus of the applicants with the crime occurred in spite of the fact of the crime 2 being registered upon a belated complaint lodged by the mother of the deceased after about 4 months and 10 days after the dead body was found. He has further urged that the Police has recorded the statement of the mother of the deceased during the inquiry conducted in the months of June and September, 2009. He has further urged that even the applicants have cooperated with the Police and their statements have also been recorded during the said period. He has thus urged that this is a fit case for granting a direction as prayed by them as not granting them would unnecessarily result in curtailing their liberty without there being any material to connect them with the crime in question. The leaned APP has urged that the prosecution had collected sufficient material for coming to the conclusion of the death of deceased being homicidal. She has urged that same is apparent after considering the number of injuries which were found upon the body and the opinion received from the Doctor. She has further urged that the investigation is in progress and investigating agency is facing difficulty due to the crime having been committed at an isolated place. She has urged that considering the serious nature of accusation levelled, the prayer in the application may not be granted as the same would hamper the progress of the investigation. The perusal of the case diary produced does not reveal the investigating agency being able to collect any material to prima facie connect the applicants with the crime which has taken place. Apart from the fact that the incident has occurred on 22.6.2009 and the complaint 3 regarding the same being lodged on 2.11.2009, i.e. after a gross delay, as rightly pointed out by the learned counsel for the applicants, still even thereafter after a passage of about one month hardly any progress has been made by the investigating agency. It is also not the case of the investigating agency that the progress is hampered for non-availability of the applicants as the prosecution has not refuted the statement made by the learned counsel for the applicants that even they had made themselves available to the I.O. and their statements are recorded. Having regard to the aforesaid, the applicants have made out a case within the parameters of Section 438 of Cr.P.C for issuing direction as prayed but with certain restrictions in view of the investigation being in progress and the same relates to the commission of serious offence with a care to see that evidence for the crime occurred does not become easily available. Inform the Investigating Officer of Crime No. 165/2009 of Koradi Police Station that in the event of arrest of the applicants in connection with the said crime, each of them shall be forthwith released until filing of charge sheet on furnishing a P.R. Bond in a sum of Rs. 50,000/- each with one or two sureties in like amount and subject to the conditions that applicants (i) shall attend said Police Station in connection with the investigation of the said crime thrice a week i.e. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in between 11 a.m. & 1 p.m. for a period of four weeks from today and thereafter as and when called by the IO by sending SMS on their mobile number furnished by them to the I.O., (ii) 4 shall not , directly or indirectly, make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the accusation levelled against them so as to dissuade them from disclosing such facts to the Police Officer, (iii) shall stay at the address mentioned in the application and shall not change the same without permission of the Court and (iv) shall not commit any offence while being on bail granted vide this order. Liberty to prosecution to apply in accordance with law for modification/cancellation of aforesaid direction. It is further expressly recorded that the observations made in the aforesaid order being made strictly for the purposes of deciding the prayer for bail, nothing therein should be construed as an opinion expressed by this Court upon the merits of the matter. Application stands disposed of. In view of the disposal of the main application, Criminal Applications (APPP) No. 423 and 424 of 2009 also stand disposed of. JUDGE halwai