Nitish Banka

    • Why Tejpal did not get Anticipatory bail?

    Anticipatory Bail envisaged in 438 CrPc with an intent to protect people who may face arrest due to false accusation.As there was no remedy for a false complaint earlier and the accused person have to apply for Bail after his arrest which could cause maligning of the image of the accused person if the complaint was false and it was against the principles of personal liberty.  In order to protect the accused from arrest due to false complaint and protect his image the provision of Anticipatory bail was introduced in CrPC.

    But again in cognizable offence bail is not a matter of right and there are certain conditions which needs to be fulfilled by the accused person before an anticipatory bail application is to be decided.

    In the case of Tarun Tejpal he is facing a serious accusation of Rape, which in itself is very grave which generally make court reluctant in giving anticipatory bail in such grave cases as a) Gravity of offence is one parameter but it is not the only parameter in deciding anticipatory bail plea.But still if the accused is fully cooperating with the investigation the court can still think that custody in this case is not necessary. But in this case it is clear from so many days despite the police after giving summons he is b) avoiding investigation. Then again the principle of anticipatory bail is to protect the victims from false complaint to which c) Tarun Tejpal has pleaded that there is political vendetta to destroy his image. But again this plea is not a tall convincing. As why would a lady would malign her image or would take a risk to put a grave accusation of Rape on a man while there is a greater risk that woman image would  more likely to be torn off with such grave accusation. d) On top of it Goa police has a genuine need to take custody of the accused in order to further their investigation. e) Tarun Tejapal also holds an Influential position he can influence victim and her family.

    Between the conflicting interests of individual liberty and society and considering the points a) to e) there is no reason that Tarun Tejpal case is a fit case for Anticipatory Bail. But

    But what I failed to understand why did Tejpal played a game of avoiding Goa Police, when he was summoned he should have directly presented himself to the police.He should have applied for anticipatory bail to Goa session court immediately after Goa police took suo moto cognizance.He wasted his time and made his case weak by applying in Delhi High court for an anticipatory bail.At this stage when statement of complainant is recorded, when prosecution has made their case strong and it is matter of time that the case would now go for trial, Tejapal is applying for anticipatory bail. I feel that things unfolded in 2-3 days would itself hamper his chances of getting a bail leave alone anticipatory bail.

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