LI Network
Published on: 22 August 2023 at 12:59 IST
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted bail to two individuals involved in a murder case where two police officials were killed.
The judge’s order extensively analyzed the case’s intricacies, the charges against the petitioners, and their arguments. The verdict delved into the prosecution’s perspective, police investigation, and the counterarguments presented by the petitioners.
The prosecution’s case centered around the killing of Constable Ravinder and SPO Kaptan, two police officials. The prosecution asserted that the petitioners, along with other co-accused, were implicated in the crime.
The court considered the circumstantial evidence and the sequence of events presented by the prosecution.However, the defense presented counterarguments contesting the prosecution’s narrative. They contended that the police officials had confronted the petitioners aggressively, leading to a heated confrontation.
The defense argued that one of the accused, Amit, had acted in self-defense to protect the two female petitioners from molestation, resulting in the police officials’ deaths.
Justice Deepak Gupta’s analysis of the case focused on the presented evidence’s merits. He stressed the importance of evaluating a case’s merits when considering bail applications for juveniles, contrary to the perception that merits were irrelevant in such cases.
The court underlined, “The rule in Section 12(1) of the Act is in favor of bail always to a juvenile/child in conflict with the law except when the case falls into one or the other categories denial contemplated by the proviso.
It is not the rule about bail in Section 12 of the Act that in case a child in conflict with the law is brought before the Board or Court, his case is not to be seen on merits prima facie about his complicity at all for the purpose of granting him bail.”
Justice Gupta’s judgment also considered the individual circumstances of each petitioner. For the petitioner referred to as ‘S,’ who was a minor at the time of the incident, the court applied the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and granted bail based on the case’s merits.
