1 2025:CGHC:17571 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR CRA No. 584 of 2025 1 - Suraj Sahu @ Katora S/o Shyam Kishore Sahu Aged About 24 Years R/o- Shantinagar (Wrongly Mentioned As Shati Nagar In The Order Sheet), Balco, Present Address- Pipe Line, Rampur Basti, Out Post- Rampur, District- Korba (C.G.) --- Appellant versus 1 - State Of Chhattisgarh Through Station House Officer, Police Station- Kotwali Korba, District- Korba (C.G.) --- Respondent For appellant : Mr. Dharmesh Shrivastava, Adv. For Respondent : Mr. Rajeev Bharat, Govt. Adv. (Hon’ble Mr. Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi) Order on Board 16-4-2025 1. Vijay Goyal, father of the deceased appeared in person through DLSA Korba. He raised strong objection in granting bail to the appellant. 2. Heard. 3. This appeal under Section 14A(II) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (in short, ‘SCST Act’) has been preferred by the appellant/accused Suraj Sahu alias Katora against the order dated 28-1-2025 passed by the Special Digitally signed by AVANISH KUMAR PATHAK Date: 2025.04.21 11:46:05 +0530 2 Judge (SCST Act), Korba, District Korba, whereby the bail application filed by the appellant for grant of regular bail has been rejected. 4. Facts of the case in nutshell, are that, deceased Aniket Goyal, who belonged to Scheduled Caste community (Jatav), and accused persons were known to each other. On the date of incident, they consumed liquor, sat together and gambled also. During that time, some altercation took place between the deceased and the accused persons, on account of which, after some times, appellant/accused and co-accused Akash Sharma alias Lala strangulated the deceased by means of Gamchha and thereby, caused his murder. Thereafter, they threw the dead body of deceased into river. Since, the deceased belonged to Scheduled Caste category and accused persons are from general category, therefore, FIR No. 703/2021 under Section 302, 201, 506, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3(2)(v) of the SCST Act was lodged at Police Station Kotwali, Korba against the appellant/accused and co-accused Akash Sharma alias Lala. After investigation, charge sheet has been filed against the appellant and co-accused Akash Sharma alias Lala, as such, they are under trial. 5. Learned counsel for the appellant/accused would submit that, appellant was arrested on 29-7-2021, charge sheet was filed on 21- 10-2021, thereafter, charges were framed , but till date, out of 17 witnesses, only 6 witnesses have been examined and examination of 7th witness has been stopped midway on 4-9-2024, thereafter, because of application filed by the prosecution under Section 319 of the Cr.P.C., no progress has been made, hence the appellant may be 3 enlarged on bail. In this regard, he relied in the case of Zahur Haider Zaidi Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation [(2019) 20 SCC 404]. 6. Per contra, learned State counsel would submit that, there is direct evidence, that too, eye-witness account against the appellant, who is main accused, therefore, the appeal is liable to be rejected. 7. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material available on record. 8. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and having considered the fact that, the appellant is said to be main accused and there is eye- witness account also namely Akash Sahu and there is evidence of last seen together also, I do not feel inclined to release the appellant on bail by allowing instant appeal. Therefore, the appeal is dismissed. 9. However, the case is said to be held up since 4-7-2024 for deciding application filed by the prosecution under Section 319 of the Cr.P.C. Such long pendency of interim application cannot be appreciated. 10. In that view of the matter, the trial Court is directed to expedite the trial and conclude the same as early as possible preferably within a period of 6 months from the date of submission/receipt of copy of this order. 11. Instant criminal appeal is accordingly disposed of. Sd/- (Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi) Judge pathak