Supreme Court of India holds longer incarceration in jail is a ground for bail

Hon. Supreme Court of India holds longer incarceration is ground for bail in Aashish @ Gorya Chandrakant Gurav Vs The State Of Maharashtra ( Slp (Crl.)No.13665/2023) in its order dated January 11, 2024.

The Applicants were charged for offences under Section 302, 307, 143, 147, 148, 149 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 25(1) of the Indian Arms Act and under Section 37(1), 135 of the Maharashtra Police Act. The accused were arrested immediately after commission of offence that is in 2017 and they sought their release on bail on the ground that the material compiled in the charge-sheet is insufficient to establish the charge levelled against them and also on the ground of their long incarceration for last 5 years.

Hon. Bombay High Court vide its order dated October 6, 2022 in Bail Application No; 1816 of 2022 rejected the bail application on the ground of active involvement of the applicant accused in the commission of alleged crime.

Facts of the case:

The alleged incident had taken place on 28.10.2017, when the Pramod Vishwakarma (complainant) resident of Thane, Louiswadi stated in its complaint  that at around 12.30 to 12.45, he noticed Akash, brother of Prashant, proceeding towards his house. At the very same time, the accused persons Raj Parav Aashish Gurav @ Gorya, Akshay Khatyal, Manglu, Aditya Jadhav, Chinmay and other 3 persons armed with sword and gupti were noticed by the Complainant when they were proceeding towards Dnyaneshwar Nagar Naka.

It was alleged in the Chargesheet that the accused persons entered into brawl with him by questioning his supremacy and all the accused assaulted him by means of the weapons and caused injuries on his head, stomach and hand. Since the assailants were more in number, the complainant and the brother of the deceased, Akash did not intervene.

But Ashish Athavale, who was present at the post, rushed to inform Prashant’s mother about the incident and his brother being petrified left the spot. Prashant was grievously injured and the complainant alongwith one Gorya residing at Dnyaneshwar Nagar, took him to a private hospital by stopping a car and he was admitted, but he was not in a position to speak. The complainant specifically allege that the present Applicant were part of the assault mounted on Prashant. This resulted in invoking Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code initially, but on the death of Prashant, the offence under Section 302 was involved and investigation was carried out.

Long Period of Incarceration

The Accused were arrested on October 28, 2017 and was under continuous incarceration till grant of bail by the Hon. Supreme Court of India on January 11, 2024. The ratio of the order granting bail is the long period of incarceration that is around of 6 years. The offence despite being of murder and attempt to murder, the continuous incarceration for six years is considered to be sufficient ground to invoke discretion for grant of bail.

Author: Nishant Upadhyay