Allahabad HC grants bail to disabled murder accused over ‘delay in conclusion of trial’

The Allahabad HC granted bail to a disabled man accused in a murder case due to the delay in the conclusion of the trial and the overcrowding of jails.

The Allahabad high court (HC) recently granted bail to a disabled man who was an accused in a murder case considering “long incarceration of undertrial prisoners in jail due to delay in conclusion of trial”.

The order was passed on August 25, 2023. (For Representation)

Justice Siddharth granted bail to one Lal Bahadur Yadav of Azamgarh while relying on a ruling of the Supreme Court in the ‘Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee Representing Undertrial Prisoners v. Union of India’ case. In this case, the Apex court had held that undertrials cannot indefinitely be detained pending trial.

Advocate Tanisha Jahangir Monir argued, “The applicant is 60 percent disabled from his waist to lower limbs and cannot be expected to run behind a young boy and shoot him from a close range. The applicant was falsely implicated in the case because of election and land dispute between him and the deceased. He has no criminal history and he has been languishing in jail since August 28, 2022. The trial in the aforesaid case is not likely to be concluded in the near future.”

The court after hearing parties concerned observed, “Having considered the submissions of the parties noted above, finding force in the submissions made by the learned counsel for the applicant, keeping in view the uncertainty regarding conclusion of trial; one sided investigation by police, ignoring the case of accused side; applicant being under-trial having fundamental right to speedy trial; larger mandate of the Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”

“Considering 5-6 times overcrowding in jails over and above their capacity by under trials and without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, let the applicant involved in the aforesaid crime be released on bail on his furnishing a personal bond and two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court concerned..,” the court said.

According to the FIR, on August 13, 2020, the informant (complainant) and her son Vinod Yadav were riding a motorcycle while her husband Heera Lal Yadav and their other son Tej Kumar Yadav were on another mobike.

They had gone to Lalganj for buying medicines and when they were returning home at about 5pm, the co-accused Dileep Yadav and Surendra Yadav allegedly stopped them on the way and called her husband Heera Lal Yadav and son Tej Kumar Yadav to their house for a talk. The informant and her other son Vinod Yadav stayed on the road. During talks, the applicant and co-accused persons fired on her husband Heera Lal Yadav.

At this, her son Tej Kumar Yadav ran outside the house but he was also allegedly fired upon by Lal Bahadur, the applicant and Ranjeet Yadav, the co-accused. Her husband and son Tej Kumar Yadav both died due to gun injuries. The order was passed on August 25.