Accused were just holding lathis, not ground for granting bail in murder case: Karnataka high court

BENGALURU: Merely because the accused were armed with lathis cannot be a ground to release them on bail, more particularly when they are charged with offences like murder/attempt to murder, rioting and unlawful assembly, the Karnataka high court has observed in a recent judgement.
Dismissing the successive bail petition filed by one Ashoka, accused no 2 in the case, justice HP Sandesh has cited the judgement of the Supreme court in Kumer Singh vs State of Rajasthan and another case.
While dealing with bail petitions with regard to sharing of common intention and common object, the top court has clearly held that when all the accused are charged for the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 307 read with Section 149 of IPC, the individual role of the accused is not required to be considered, when they are alleged to have been the part of the unlawful assembly, the judge has pointed out in his order.
"Hence, I do not find any merit in the petition to grant bail in favour of this petitioner in a successive bail petition. No further development has been made out and no different considerations also found to exercise the discretion" the judge has observed in his order.
In fact, on June 20, 2022, the court had dismissed the bail petition filed by both Ashoka and Gopala, accused no 1. Both are residents of Hunsur town in Mysuru district.
The case of the prosecution is that the wife of accused no.1 Gopala was allegedly having an illicit relationship with the deceased/Krishna and there was a panchayath held in this regard twice.
Thereafter, Gopala hatched a plan along with petitioner Ashok to eliminate Krishna with the help of J.C.B machine. They dug a pit near Gopala"s land and thereafter Gopala offered the deceased/Krishna to have liquor on his land.
When Krishna went there and consumed alcohol, both Gopala and Ashoka murdered him by assaulting him with lathis/ clubs and they cremated the body in the said pit.
A missing complaint was given on November 28, 2021, by the wife of the deceased and two days later, Hunsur Rural police arrested both the accused and also exhumed the body of the deceased Krishna at their instance.
In his petition, Ashoka had claimed that the motive, as well as the assault, is attributed to Gopala and there is no allegation about him committing any overt act.
He argued that even the recovery of the dead body was at the instance of accused no 1. Gopala.
However, the government advocate refuted the same and pointed out that the recovery of the body was at the instance of both the accused and added that there were no changes in circumstances to entertain this successive bail petition.