The Allahabad High Court has granted conditional bail to Anwar Shahjad, brother-in-law of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, accused in a cheating case.
A Single Bench of Justice Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi passed this order while hearing a Criminal Misc Bail Application filed by Anwar Shahjad.
The bail application has been filed by the applicant to enlarge him on bail in case under Sections 406, 420, 386, 506 I.P.C, P.S Kotwali Ghazipur, District Ghazipur.
The counsel for applicant contended that the F.I.R of the case has been lodged on 24.02.2023 and according to allegations of the F.I.R, the alleged incident is of the year 2012.
As such, the F.I.R has been lodged after 11 years of the alleged incident. The allegations of the F.I.R are ambiguous and some allegations are based on suspicion. There is no specific allegation in the FIR.
In fact, no such incident has happened and accused-applicant has been falsely implicated just to keep pressure.
It is further contended that the F.I.R has been lodged with ulterior motives just to harass and humiliate the applicant and to keep him in jail which is evident from the fact that as soon as the applicant was granted bail in other case and was going to be released from jail, this F.I.R has been lodged just to keep him in jail.
Lastly, it is contended that applicant is in jail in the case since 13.03.2023 while he is in custody since 31.08.2022 in other cases and he undertakes that he will not misuse the liberty of bail.
It is next submitted that there is also no possibility of the applicant either fleeing away from the judicial process or tampering with the witnesses.
The AGA has opposed the prayer for bail and submitted that the cause of inordinate delay in lodging the F.I.R is that one of the accused Afsa Ansari is the wife of Mukhtar Ansari who is a notorious gangster and under his influence, no one dares to lodge the FIR. Now persons are coming forward to lodge the FIR.
It is further contended that the applicant is involved in many criminal cases and he was granted bail in a Gangster Act case but he misuse of the liberty of the bail, hence, the case under Section 174(a) I.P.C was also registered. This shows that if the applicant is granted bail he will flee from justice. Hence, the applicant is not entitled to be enlarged on bail.
The counsel for applicant further contended that applicant is already on bail in the case registered against him under Section 174(a) IPC.
“Considering the rival submissions of the parties, the nature and gravity of the offence, the severity of punishment, the evidence & other material available on record, and all other attending facts and circumstances of the case, in view of the Court, a case for bail is made out”, the Court observed while allowing the bail application.
The Court ordered that,
Let the applicant- Anwar Shahjad involved in the aforesaid case, be enlarged on bail on his executing a personal bond and two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court concerned. This bail order would be subject to the fulfillment of following conditions:-
1. The applicant shall cooperate in the trial sincerely without seeking any adjournment.
2. The applicant shall remain present before the trial court on each date fixed, either personally or through his counsel.
3. The applicant shall remain present, in person, before the trial court on the dates fixed for (i) opening of the case, (ii) framing of charge and (iii) recording of statement under Section 313 CrPC.
If in the opinion of the trial court default of this condition is deliberate or without sufficient cause, then it shall be open for the trial court to treat such default as abuse of liberty of his bail and proceed against him in accordance with law.