The Allahabad High Court has imposed a cost of one lakh rupees on the accused while terming the continuous attempt to postpone the hearing of the MLA Raju Pal murder case as an abuse of the judicial process.
A Single Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh passed this order while hearing an application under Section 482 filed by Dinesh Pasi@ Dinesh Kumar.
The application U/s 482 Cr.P.C has been filed seeking quashing of the order dated 31.01.2023 passed by the Special Judge (M.P/M.L.A) Allahabad in Sessions Trial, arising out of Case under Sections 147, 148, 149, 323, 364, 504, 506 IPC, Police Station – Dhoomanganj, District Prayagraj thereby rejecting the application filed by the applicant under Section 311 Cr.P.C; and seeking stay of the aforesaid impugned order.
This is another attempt on behalf of the accused applicant to delay and prolong the trial of Sessions Trial.
The Court noted that,
Number of applications have been filed before the trial court and thereafter the proceedings have been undertaken before the Court as well as the Supreme Court with only purpose to drag the trial and prolong it to the extent when the prosecution witnesses are tired or wonover. One after another, accused has been filing applications for summoning more and more defence witnesses. In this case, so far 50 witnesses have been examined.
The Court had dismissed a similar petition on 19.01.2023 filed by one co-accused Atique Ahmad.
The Court in an application U/s 482 Cr.P.C filed by one Krishna Kumar Pal @ Umesh Pal, had directed the trial court to conclude the trial finally and pronounce the judgment within two months from that date i.e 16.01.2023.
Now the accused has filed an application before the trial court being Application under Section 311 Cr.P.C to summon three defence witnesses though 50 defence witnesses have been examined so far and three defence witnesses have been examined by the petitioner himself. The trial court considering these facts and directions of the Court, has dismissed the application order dated 31.01.2023.
The Court further noted that there have been consistent attempts made by the accused to derail the trial. This kind of practice has to be dealt with stemly and the accused applicant cannot be allowed to subvert the process of law and Court. The attempt of behalf of the accused is nothing but a gross abuse of process of the Court.
In view thereof, the Court found that the petition has been filed with oblique purposes and it is nothing but a gross abuse of process of the Court, and therefore, same is hereby rejected with exemplary cost of Rs 1,00,000/- to be deposited by the accused applicant within two weeks in the account of Army Battle Casualty Welfare Fund.
In case of default in depositing the amount of Rs 1,00,000/-, the District Magistrate is directed to recover the same as arrears of land revenue, the Court ordered.