High Court grants bail to SP MLA in Nandi attack case

The Allahabad High Court today granted bail to Samajwadi Party MLA Vijay Kumar Mishra, an accused in the attack on the then BSP minister Nand Gopal Gupta "Nandi" in which The Indian Express reporter Vijay Pratap Singh and another person were killed on July 12, 2010. Mishra is the first of more than a dozen accused to get bail.

Mishra, currently MLA from Gyanpur in Sant Ravi Das Nagar (Bhadohi) for the third time, was arrested on February 8, 2011, in connection with the case registered at Kotwali police station and was out on bail in all the other criminal cases pending against him. "He is likely to be released from Naini Central Jail by tomorrow," said his counsel Gopal Swarup Chaturvedi.

The court found Mishra's case fit for bail after it noted that the state government had not strongly opposed his plea even as the applicant was charged under the Gangsters Act.

Passing the order, reserved last week, a single-judge bench of Justice S C Agarwal said: "In the instant case, the state has not seriously opposed the application for bail. The material placed before the court does not go beyond a suspicion. Rigours of Section 19 (4) of the Gangsters Act apply only if the public prosecutor opposes the bail. In the absence of serious opposition on the part of the state or the public prosecutor, the restrictions provided by Section 19 (4) of the Gangsters Act do not come into play."

Section 19 (4) of the Gangsters Act says that no person charged with this offence shall be released on bail until the public prosecutor has been given a chance to oppose the plea bail.

The court has asked Mishra to appear before the court as per conditions in the bail bond and deposit his passport within two weeks of his release before the court concerned. He has been warned against threatening or inducing witnesses and tampering with evidence.

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