The Allahabad High Court has observed while dismissing a petition that if bail is granted to a similarly placed accused person without any reason, then grant of bail on grounds of parity should not be allowed.
A Single Bench of Justice Sameer Jain passed this order while hearing a Criminal Misc Bail Application filed by Manish.
By way of the application, the applicant prayed to release him on bail in Case under Sections 302, 120B IPC, Police Station Sikandra, District Agra.
The applicant is the cousin (Mausera Bhai) of the deceased. The FIR of the case was lodged on 20.01.2019 under Sections 302, 120B IPC against the applicant and his parents with the allegation that on 15.11.2018 applicant along with his parents set ablaze the sister of informant, namely Rakhi, by pouring kerosene and during the course of treatment, Rakhi succumbed to her injuries on 20.11.2018.
Her dying declaration was recorded by the Additional City Magistrate-III, Agra on 15.11.2018 i.e on the date of incident in the hospital in which she stated that applicant, his parents and Mintu (brother of applicant) dragged her and after pouring kerosene on her and set her afire.
The counsel for the applicant submitted that the entire allegation made in the FIR and in the dying declaration of the deceased is totally false and baseless and initially, during investigation, the accusation made against the applicant and his parents were found false, therefore, final report was submitted on 19.02.2019 thereafter, on the direction of the SSP concerned, further investigation was commenced and on 18.8.2019 charge-sheet was submitted against the parents of the applicant whereas, in respect of applicant, investigation continued. He further submitted that thereafter a charge-sheet against the applicant was also filed.
The counsel for the applicant further submitted that dying declaration of the deceased Rakhi is not in accordance with law and is tutored one and he vehemently submitted that co-accused Mausammi @ Triveni, the mother of applicant, Raju, the father of applicant and Mintu, the brother of applicant have already been enlarged on bail by the coordinate Bench of the Court and as per dying declaration, the allegation against the applicant is also at par with those accused persons, who have been enlarged on bail, therefore, on the ground of parity applicant should also be released on bail.
Per contra, AGA submitted that there is specific allegation against the applicant in the dying declaration of the deceased recorded by the Additional City Magistrate-III on 15.11.2018 and while granting bail to co-accused, namely, Mausammi @ Triveni, Raju and Mintu, the dying declaration of the deceased could not be discussed, therefore, on the ground of parity applicant should not be released on bail.
The Court observed that,
From the perusal of the FIR, it appears that the informant, who is brother of the deceased, was not an eyewitness, but on 15.11.2018, Additional City MagistrateIII recorded the dying declaration of the deceased Rakhi in the hospital. From the perusal of the dying declaration of deceased it reflects that there is specific allegation against the applicant and co-accused Mausammi @ Triveni, Raju and Mintu that all the accused persons including the applicant dragged her in their house and ablazed her after pouring kerosene oil.
Firstly co-accused Mintu @ Amit was granted bail by co-ordinate Bench of the Court on 6.8.2021 vide Crl Misc Case No 27220 of 2021. Perusal of the bail order of co-accused Mintu @ Amit shows that he was granted bail merely on the basis of argument advanced by the counsel for the co-accused.
Therefore, from the above discussion, it is apparent that parity cannot become the sole criteria to grant bail and if the bail granted to similarly placed co-accused persons without assigning any reasons then on the basis of such bail orders merely on the ground of parity, the bail application should not be allowed and parity can only be persuasive in nature and cannot be binding, the Court said.
“In the case, in the dying declaration of the deceased, there is specific allegation against the applicant that he along with co-accused persons dragged the deceased in his house and poured kerosene oil on her and when she tried to manage to escape then after chasing her applicant and co-accused persons ablazed her and post mortem report of the deceased further shows that she died due to ante mortem burn injuries and co-accused persons who were although released on bail by coordinate Bench of this Court but their bail orders shows that they were released on bail merely on the basis of the argument advanced by their respective counsels without assigning any reasons, therefore, in my view, it is not a fit case in which applicant can either be released on bail on merit or on the ground of parity,” the Court further observed while dismissing the bail application.