The Bombay High Court recently granted bail to a man booked for murdering a restaurant owner in Pune in June 2020. The court also observed that the prosecution failed to show involvement of the accused in the crime. Thereafter, the court directed the accused to be released on bail on a personal bond of Rs 25,000 with sureties of like amount and asked him to cooperate with the probing agency.
A single-judge bench of Justice CV Bhadang on April 12 passed the order in response to a bail application by Sudhir Rajaram Kamthe, who was booked by Sinhagad Road police station for allegedly assaulting and murdering a restaurant owner, Sunil Langore.
The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by a person who knew the deceased. Kamthe and another person were arrested on June 16, 2020. Notably, the sessions court had thrice refused to release the applicant on bail, prompting him to approach the high court.
Advocate Sana Raees Khan representing the applicant said that Kamthe has been falsely implicated in the case. Khan further argued that one of the co-accused has been released by sessions judge on bail and so Kamthe should also be released.
The bench observed that “the case was based on circumstantial evidence as there was no eyewitness account of the incident in which the deceased was assaulted and done to death.”
The bench then asked the state lawyer whether any CCTV footage recovered by the police was shown to any prosecution witnesses and whether the identity of the persons seen in the CCTV footage was established. To which, the lawyer responded that there was no such evidence. The court also noted that the police did not conduct any Test Identification Parade (TIP).
The judge went through statements of witnesses and noted, “All these statements are recorded after the arrest of the applicant and prima facie cannot show complicity of the applicant. The investigation is complete and the chargesheet is filed. The criminal bail application is allowed.”
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/pune-murder-bombay-hc-bail-7873625/
