Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.319 – Power to proceed against other persons appearing to be guilty – FIR registered against nine accused persons, however chargesheet filed only against three accused persons, whereas the closure report filed as regards the remaining six co-accused – On basis of the oral evidence of the eye-witnesses, application u/s.319 filed by the first informant before the trial court seeking that the six co-accused dropped by the police to be added and summoned as accused to face the trial – Application partly allowed, out of the six accused who were dropped, three accused persons summoned – Appellant arrested pursuant to non-bailable warrant issued against him, and the other two granted anticipatory bail by the High Court – Correctness: Held: When a person is added as an accused u/s.319 and that person is ultimately arrested and prays for bail, the relevant consideration at the end of the court while considering his plea for bail should be the strong and cogent evidence than mere probability of his complicity – Test to be applied is one which is more than prima facie case as exercised at the time of framing of charge, but short of satisfaction to an extent that the evidence, if goes unrebutted would lead to conviction – Court should weigh factors like the nature of the offence, the quality of the evidence against the new accused and the likelihood of the person absconding or tampering with evidence – Court must be satisfied that there is strong and cogent evidence of the person’s complicity at the threshold i.e. much higher than that required for framing charges against the original accused – Thus, on facts, appellant to be released on bail subject to terms and conditions that the trial court may deem fit to impose – Other two accused already on anticipatory bail – No case made out by the State for cancellation of anticipatory bail. [Paras 14, 15, 17, 18]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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