PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has granted conditional bail to a murder undertrial, who has been behind the bars for nearly seven years. Jano Zore had filed a criminal miscellaneous application for bail citing that the prosecution is examining only its third witness before the Trial Court.
Considering the pace of the trial, High Court Justice M S Jawalkar released the alleged accused on bail. “I have considered rival contentions of the parties. In my considered opinion, the very fact that since 2014 only three witnesses are examined by the prosecution, itself is a big ground to release the applicant on bail,” states the order.
During the hearing, the applicant, represented by Advocate Arun Bras De Sa said since 2014, he is behind bars and only two prosecution witnesses have been examined and the third witness is in the (witness) box. No further evidence is recorded from January 21, 2020.
Additional Public Prosecutor Sagar Dhargalkar has not disputed this fact that only three witnesses have been examined so far. He submitted that many material witnesses are to be examined and if accused is released on bail there is every possibility of threatening the witnesses or tampering with the evidence.
Adv De Sa contended that the applicant attacked his wife, which turned fatal, was due to provocation from her side.
“It is also pointed out that the case is out of provocation as the wife of the accused allegedly had extra-marital relations. The statement of Samir alias Munna Sayyad prima facie clearly establishes that he was having relations with deceased Bhagyashree. It has also come on record that the accused is not the biological father of the foetus. The other statements of witnesses show that there were frequent quarrels on this count between the accused and the deceased. The injuries on the person of accused also support the fact of sudden fight,” the counsel submitted.
HC grants conditional bail to murder undertrial
