33 08-01-2025 (ct. no. 29) KOLE Allowed CRM (DB) 3124 of 2024 In re: An application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure/Section 483 of the BNSS in connection with Gangarampur Police Station Case No. 150 of 2021 dated 01.05.2021 under Sections 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3(2)(5) of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. - A n d - In the matter of : Biren Pramanik & Ors. .... Petitioners. Mr. Subhendu Sekhar Roy, Mr. Kaushik Chowdhury, Mr. B. Khatun, … For the Petitioners. Mr. Dhiraj Trivedi, Mr. Amajit De, … For the CBI. Order dictated by Arijit Banerjee, J.: 1. The petitioners renew their prayer for bail on the ground of inordinate delay in progress of the trial. They say that they are in custody for more than three and half years (wrongly recorded as two years seven months in the order dated December 3, 2024, passed by this Court). Only 22 out of 46 charge sheet named witnesses have been examined. There is no possibility of an early conclusion of the trial. On the touchstone of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners renew their prayer for bail. 2. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a status report. Let the same be kept with the records. 3. From the status report we find that CBI proposes to examine 16 more witnesses. 4. We, therefore, see that the petitioners are in custody for more than three and half years. There is little likelihood of the trial concluding on an early date. Signed By : ABHIJIT KOLE High Court of Calcutta 9 th of January 2025 11:59:30 AM 2 5. Without touching the merits of the case and solely on the touchstone of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, keeping in mind the overriding importance of the fundamental right to personal liberty and speedy trial that every citizen has, we feel constrained to enlarge the petitioners on bail but on stringent conditions. 6. Accordingly, we direct that the petitioners, namely, Biren Pramanik, Pikai Pramanik and Mayuk Chakraborty, shall be released on bail upon furnishing a bond of Rs. 10,000/- each, with two sureties of like amount each, one of whom must be local, to the satisfaction of the Learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Dakshin Dinajpur subject to condition that they shall appear before the trial court on every date of hearing and shall not intimidate the witnesses and/or tamper with evidence in any manner whatsoever and on further condition that the petitioners while on bail shall not enter the jurisdiction of the concerned police station and shall meet the officer in charge of the concerned police station once every fortnight until further orders where they will reside. 7. In the event the petitioners fail to adhere to any of the conditions stipulated above without justifiable cause, the trial court shall be at liberty to cancel the petitioners’ bail in accordance with law without further reference to this court. 8. The application for bail is, accordingly, allowed. 9. All parties shall act in terms of server copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court. ( Apurba Sinha Ray, J. ) ( Arijit Banerjee, J. ) Signed By : ABHIJIT KOLE High Court of Calcutta 9 th of January 2025 11:59:30 AM