HC to hear fresh bail pleas in Mohsin Shaikh murder case

Pune: The Supreme Court has set aside the Bombay High Court’s three orders of January 12, 2017, that granted bail to three of the 21 accused in the June 2, 2014, murder of IT professional Mohsin Shaikh.

A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao also took exception to the high court’s observation in these orders which appeared to reason that the three accused committed the crime because they were provoked “in the name of religion”.

“We find that the aforesaid reason can, on a fair reading, be understood or misunderstood almost as a mitigating circumstance or a kind of a justification for the murder and it is obvious that the fact that the deceased belonged to a certain community cannot be a justification for any assault much less a murder,” the SC bench said in an order on February 8.

“We have no doubt that a court fully conscious of the plural composition of the country while called upon to deal with rights of various communities, cannot make such observations which may appear to be coloured with a bias for or against a community,” the apex court bench observed.

“It is possible that the learned (HC) judge wanted to rule out a personal motive against the victim, but only emphasize communal hatred. It is also possible that the learned single judge may not have intended to hurt the feelings of any particular community or support the feelings of another community but, the words are clearly vulnerable to such criticism. The direction cannot be sustained,” the SC bench said.

Mohsin’s brother, Mubin Shaikh, had moved a petition against the high court’s orders that granted bail to three of these accused, Ganesh alias Ranjeet Shankar Yadav, Ajay Dilip Lalge and Vijay Rajendra Gambhire.

Referring to the orders impugned (under challenge), the SC bench said, “While it may be possible to understand a reference to the community of the parties involved in an assault, it is difficult to understand why it was said that “the fault of the deceased was only that he belonged to another religion” and further “I consider this factor in favour of the accused.”

The apex court also observed that “the impugned orders made little reference to or discussion on the other relevant factors relating to granting or withholding bail in a murder case. We consider it appropriate to set aside the impugned order(s).”

The bench restored the bail pleas to the high court with a direction that the HC shall hear the matter(s) afresh. “The parties are directed to appear before the HC on February 16, 2018. Having regard to the circumstances of the case, the bail applications may be decided at the earliest in any case, not later than six weeks from the parties appearing before the high court,” the SC order stated.