Research › Browse › Judgment

Orissa High Court · body

1984 DIGILAW 76 (ORI)

D. DANDA ALIAS DANDAPANI v. STATE OF ORISSA

1984-03-14

B.K.BEHERA, R.C.PATNAIK

body1984
JUDGMENT : B.K. Behera, J. - The petitioners in Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 891 of 1983 seek their release on bail. While is application had already been made, four of them, namely, Danda alias Dandapani, Saka Raghunath, Desulu Chineya and Desulu Lacheya, made another application for bail connection with the same case which was registered as Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 86 of 1984. Both the applications have been heard together. 2. The learned counsel for the petitioners has submitted lore us that regard being had to the nature of the case and the legations made against the petitioners and in the absence of materials indicating as to who had dealt the fatal blows on the person of the deceased which had resulted in his death, the petitioners should now be admitted to bail although earlier they unsuccessfully moved this Court for their release at the stage investigation of the case. The learned Government Advocate has opposed the applications and has submitted that after due consideration, bail has been refused to the petitioners by this Court and no new grounds have been made out for admitting them to bail. 3. The petitioners are alleged to have committed offences punishable under sections 147, 148, 302,325,324,323,201, 427, 457 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code. Of the offences, the offence of murder punishable under section 302 read with section 149 of the Indian Penal Code and the offence of housebreaking punishable under section 457 of the Indian Penal Code are non-bailable. The nature and the gravity of the circumstances in which the offence is committed, the likelihood of the accused fleeing from justice and tampering with the prosecution evidence are some of the factors to be kept in mind while considering an application for bail. 4. The petitioners are accused of an offence of murder punishable with death or imprisonment for life The petitioners, it is alleged, came armed on July 19.1983, broke open the house of the deceased, dragged him out and assaulted him to death and thereafter the dead body was packed in a gunny bag and thrown into the canal There are a number of eye-witnesses to the occurrence. The petitioners bad earlier moved the Court of Session and this Court for their release on bail. The petitioners bad earlier moved the Court of Session and this Court for their release on bail. In Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 558 of 1983, this Court, by its order dated September 8, 1983, admitted five of the accused persons to bail and bail was refused to the petitioners who bad been implicated by the eye-witnesses as the assailants of the deceased. 5. An order with regard to the grant, refusal or cancellation of bail is interlocutory in character. Successive bail applications do lie. The Supreme Court, in the case of Babu Singh and Others v. The State of Uttar Pradesh AIR 1978 S.C. 527 has laid down:- "....But an order refusing an application for bad does not necessarily preclude another, on a later occasion, giving more materials, further developments and different considerations. While we surely must set store by this circumstance, we cannot accede to the faint plea that we are barred from second consideration at a later stage. An interim direction is not a conclusive adjudication, and updated reconsideration is not overturning an earlier negation...." 6. Earlier, this Court had refused the prayer of the petitioners to admit them to bail. That was, no doubt, at the state of investigation, but the fact that a charge-sheet has now been placed does not improve the position of the petitioners and this cannot be given weightage in their favour, as urged before us. On the other hand, the placing of a charge-sheet would indicate that the investigating agency has found out materials against the petitioners to connect them with the commission of the offences. Whether the materials gathered against the petitioners are to be accepted is a matter to be gone into at the stage of trial. It may not appropriately be said at this stage that there are no materials to connect the petitioners with the commission of murder. No new or additional grounds have been made out by the petitioners. There are no additional materials to admit the petitioners to bail although their application had been rejected by this Court earlier. We see no new developments to take a view different from the one taken by this Court earlier. 7. For the aforesaid reasons, we are not inclined to mu the petitioners to bail. The two applications are rejected and the Miscellaneous Cases stand dismissed. R.C. Patnaik J. - I agree. Final Result : Dismissed