The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed displeasure at the Bihar Police asking an accused in a criminal case to prove his innocence during interrogation. A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan stated that such an approach cannot be countenanced.
The top court bench remarked that the Bihar Police need the custody of the appellant, Md. Tauhid alias Kallu, not for interrogation but for some other reasons. The Supreme Court further stated that the approach of the Bihar Police reflected from Paragraph 9 of the counter affidavit, to say the least, is shocking.
The bench also observed that the police officer seems to be under an impression that the accused has to appear before him and prove his innocence. The Supreme Court proceeded to make absolute its earlier order granting anticipatory bail to the man accused of an attempt to murder.
The bench was hearing an appeal challenging a Patna High Court order from October 2023 that refused to grant the accused anticipatory bail. Earlier on December 6, the apex court issued notice on the appeal and granted the appellant interim protection from the arrest. Following the interim order on December 6, 2023, the accused was called upon to join the investigation only once on January 15, 2024.
Later, the Bihar Police submitted a counter-affidavit to argue that the accused should remain in custody. Reportedly, the counter-affidavit stated that the accused on interrogation pleaded himself innocent but did not produce any material in support of his claim. The top court bench was not satisfied with the Bihar police’s counter-affidavit and therefore proceeded to allow the anticipatory bail plea by the accused.
Advocate Manish Kumar and Advocate Ravi Shanker Jha represented the Bihar Police while Senior Advocate Syed Jafar Hussain along with advocates Praveen Swarup, Ameet Singh, KP Singh, Archana Sharma, Ravi Kumar, and Devesh Maurya appeared for the accused.