By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 6: The High Court of Meghalaya has granted conditional bail to four coke factory owners.
They are Kuldeep Kumar Bansal, Anil Arya, Heimonmi Nongtdu, and Bina Marak.
According to the petitioner, an FIR on December 17, 2022, was lodged at the Shallang police station by the ADC-cum-SDO (Civil), Mawshynrut Civil Sub-Division, indicating the ongoing process of shutting down of 57 illegal coke plants within the West Khasi Hills district. Steps were subsequently taken by the authorities concerned to find the owners of such coke plants and initiate legal proceedings against them.
The Shallang police registered the case and the investigating officer summoned an accused person to appear before him pursuant to the notice issued under Section 41-A of the CrPC.
The investigation officer deemed it fit to arrest the accused and remand him to judicial custody. The petitioner then approached the court with a plea to grant bail to the accused.
Without going into the merits of the petition at this juncture, Additional Advocate-General ND Chullai submitted that this matter, identical to another taken up by the high court has been dealt with adequately and the court, through an order on September 1, granted pre-arrest bail to the petitioner in connection with the registered case.
The AAG also apprised the court that in a similar application for grant of bail, the Supreme Court allowed a co-accused on August 28 to be granted bail on the ground that the prosecution found it unnecessary for the said accused person to be incarcerated.
Further, submitting that the order passed by the Supreme Court will also be applicable herein, the AAG submitted that there is no objection to the prayer made for the grant of bail in this case. The bail was granted conditionally.
The high court on perusal of the Supreme Court’s August 28 order and its own order on September 1 was convinced that the petitioners had made a case for the grant of bail.
All the accused persons were granted bail under the condition that they would not abscond or tamper with the evidence or witnesses, should cooperate with the investigation and furnish mobile phone numbers to be contacted at all times, if required.
The accused were also directed not to leave Assam and Meghalaya except with prior permission of the investigating officer or the court concerned. They were granted bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh with a solvent surety of a like amount to the satisfaction of the arresting authority or the court concerned.