The Supreme Court has denied the bail application of a 71-year-old senior citizen accused of murder, overriding a Madhya Pradesh High Court ruling dismissing the second bail motion.
The bench comprising Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Bela M. Trivedi observed that the applicant is seeking bail consistently for the third time and questioned, “Every person who is 70 years old has a license to fire and kill the person? You are not at examining the trial stage. You are seeking bail here”
The FIR was registered at Police Station Nowgaon, District Chhatarpur for the offence punishable under Sections 147, 148, 149, 302, 307 of Indian Penal code, 1860 and Section 25/27 of the Arms Act, 1959 against the applicant along with 6 others accused. After charge-sheet came to be filed, the charges are framed and informed that there are 24 witnesses to the incident, 7 witnesses are examined. The Supreme Court had granted bail to two of the accused.
The advocate for the applicant relied on the case of one of the accused in the matter where the Apex Court granted bail to co-accused Umesh Pathak on the ground that he did not take any active part in the incident, to which the bench replied that that Umesh Pathak is only accused of using filthy language and his presence during the incident. “You are the person who has fired and due to the gun shot injury, someone died.”
As per the prosecution case, complainant Ompakash Pathak, along with 2 others were sitting in front of his house in village Putarya when applicant Shripat Pathak armed with a 12-bore gun and co-accused Vinod Pathak armed with a stick with 5 others accused came to assault the complainants. The applicant along with one accused had also fired due to which one of the persons died on the spot. It is also submitted that the police officials seized 12-bore gun from the possession of applicant.
Earlier, the first bail application was rejected by the bench of Justice Rajeev Kumar Dubey of the Madhya Pradesh High Court looking at the gravity of the offence. Similarly, the second bail application was also rejected on the ground that the applicant was responsible for the murder.
Case: SHRIPAT PATHAK v THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH
SLP(Crl) No. 12481/2022