The Supreme Court has granted anticipatory bail to law students, who were accused of injuring two advocates inside their chamber.
The students had earlier filed a petition seeking anticipatory bail before the Hyderabad Bench of the Telangana High Court.
The High Court had dismissed the petition on the grounds that the accused had trespassed into the advocates’ office and assaulted the two lawyers.
The High Court had further recorded that in the complaint filed by the advocate, the accused were also slapped with allegations for assaulting a woman advocate as well. Apart from this, the offence of trespassing was also alleged.
It noted that the de-facto complainant had filed a written complaint on July 27, 2023, alleging that the petitioners had trespassed into their office and assaulted both the de-facto complainant and the woman advocate in the office. The de-facto complainant received injuries on the face and eye. The woman advocate was assaulted, amounting to outraging her modesty.
The accused then approached the Supreme Court, which granted them anticipatory bail on the grounds that there was no material for keeping the appellants in custody at this stage.
The Apex Court further observed that the appellants’ detention was not justifiable in the absence of any other serious reason.
It observed that there appeared to be conflicting complaints between the appellants and the injured lawyers. The appellants were meant to have caused serious injuries to one of the lawyers.
However, this Court could not find any material which would justify custodial interrogation of the appellants. There were no other aggravating circumstances also, which would justify their detention at the investigation stage, it added.
However, the top court of the country imposed a few conditions. It directed the appellants to be present at the office of the investigating officer once a week, every Saturday at 5.00 pm till the filing of the charge sheet.
Besides, the appellants were directed not to interfere with or influence the witnesses while remaining enlarged on bail.
(Case title: Mir Shujath Ali Khan etc vs The State of Telangana)