Air hostess suicide: HC rejects Kanda's anticipatory bail

The anticipatory bail plea of absconding ex-Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda was today dismissed by the Delhi High Court which said despite being a "free man" he himself did not file and it was a "sufficient" ground for its rejection.

The court also came down heavily on Delhi Police for not pressing its plea before the magisterial court to search his premises in Haryana.

Without going into the legal and factual contentions raised by Kanda's lawyer in the day-long hearing, Justice P K Bhasin said, "In my view, this anticipatory bail application is liable to be rejected, without going into the merits at all, only on the ground that the same has not been filed by the person apprehending his arrest."

The court, in its 13-page order, also said, "The policefile also shows that an application had been moved in the Court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate... seeking permission to search his house on 8th August, 2012 but that application was not pressed when it was taken up for consideration ... and the same was got dismissed as withdrawn. Thereafter, no fresh application appears to have been moved in that regard.

"Because of all these actions of police the concernedaccused appears to be sitting comfortably somewhere without any apprehension of his arrest ...and that circumstance also appears to be the reason for his not claiming anticipatory bail himself."

It also referred to various case laws to stress the legal proposition that an accused, who is free, should file the anticipatory bail plea on his own.

Justice Bhasin said, "considering the fact that Gopal Goyal Kanda is a free man, at least at the present point of time, he alone could have moved the anticipatory bail application supported by his own affidavit and in the absenceof his having done that this application cannot be considered by this Court to have actually been filed by him."

... contd.

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