1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO.696 OF 2010 Sushil Kamalakant Choudhary and anr. ` ..Applicants. Vs. The State of Maharashtra. ..Respondent. Mr.Subhash Jha i/by Law Global for the Applicants. Smt. V.R.Bhosale, APP. for the State. CORAM : R.S. MOHITE, J. DATE : 6th April, 2010 PC : 1 This is an application for grant of bail. The applicant has been shown as an accused in C R.No.353/2009 registered by Vileparle Police Station. Now the matter has been committed to the Sessions Court and the case has been registered as Sessions Case No.2631 of 2010. The Offence alleged against the applicants is under Section 302 read with 34 of the I.P.C. The deceased is one Nandkishore Jha who was Security Supervisor in a building known as Gokul Arcade. The incident took 2 place in the early morning on 14.8.2009. The record indicates that the police have recorded the statements of several other security guards. The applicants were also working as security supervisors in the same building. One of the security guard stated that he had seen the present applicants along with the deceased just prior to the incident. This circumstance is stated by the prosecution the circumstances as of last seen together . It appears that during the course of investigation another security guard by name Ranjish Chaudhary was found to be missing. It is their case that he turned up in police station after 14 days with a story that he has seen the present applicants bring down the body of the deceased by holding his hands and legs and on seeing a police jeep they dumped the body in the compound of the building. The prosecution relied upon this statement. It is however, seen that this witness himself was missing prior to the incident. Naturally he was one of the suspects. Another 3 important circumstance is that, on 14.8.2009 the prosecution conducted the panchanama of the dead body. It is seen that the dead body was lying 2ft. away from the office entrance. In other words, the dead body was lying near the building. The panchanama also indicates that it was lying 5ft away from the Banyanian tree which is within the compound and further further records that the dead body was lying 10ft. away from the broken branch of the tree and the distance of the scene of the offence to the first floor where the branch had fallen was 14ft. It is contended on behalf of the applicants that there was no reason for branches of the banyiyan tree to broken unless there was a heavy fall from the terrace. There is some substance in the contention of the applicant and the matter will have to be looked into at the trial. However, since the star witness allegedly went back to Patna and came back after a long time, this is a fit case for grant of bail particularly as the applicants are security guards 4 and no antecedents are alleged against them. In the circumstances, it is directed that pending their trial in Sessions Case No.2631/2010, the applicants will be released on bail in the sum of Rs.15,000/- each with one surety each in the like amount subject to the condition that they will report to the Investigating Officer once in a fortnight on every first and third Monday and will remain present on all the dates of the trial in the trial court unless exempted. Since the applicants are from Bihar State, only local surety from Greater Bombay should be accepted. Application is disposed off. 2 Parties to act on a copy of this order duly authenticated by the registry of this court. ( R.S. MOHITE, J.)