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A technical issue of due date of filing a chargesheet and bail in a serious crime was dismissed by the Supreme Court bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta on Thursday (January 18) in favour of the high court’s decision.
The main question in this case was ‘whether in a case regarding offence for which the punishment imposable may extend up to ten years, the accused is entitled to bail under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 due to default on the part of the investigating agency in not filing the chargesheet within 60 days.’
On Thursday senior advocate Sanjay Hegde argued before the on the issue that the second FIR in the same case could not have been filed and it was only lodged by the complainant (the State of Assam) to circumvent the second bail. He argued that it was one conspiracy which bounds several offences, and in the sameness of transaction, the components cannot be separated.
He said that therefore the second FIR is impermissible and the subsequent chargesheet could have been filed as supplementary chargesheet and not as a separate chargesheet.
The bench did not accept the arguments made by the advocate and dismissed the case without granting default bail to the accused, Rakesh Kumar Paul, former Chairman of Assam Public Service Commission.
The High Court in this case had given three months time to the investigating agency to submit its chargesheet.
-India Legal Bureau