49. 11-02-2025 CRM (DB) 3497 of 2024 (ct. no.29) S. De (Allowed) In Re: An Application for Bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as amended under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in connection with Bhatpara Police Station Case No. 492 of 2022 dated 02.07.2022 under Sections 302/120B/34 of the Indian Penal Code read with Sections 25/27 of the Arms Act. And In the matter of : Wasim Alam @ Wasim Akram & Anr. ……Petitioners. Mr. Mrityunjoy Chatterjee, Ms. Debapriya Majumder, Mr. Akash Sarkar, ……for the Petitioners. Ms. Faria Hossain, Mr. Sobhan Gani, ……for the State. Dictated by Arijit Banerjee, J. 1. Status report filed by the State be kept with the records. 2. From the report it appears that 7 prosecution witnesses have been examined by the State. The prosecution intends to examine 8 more witnesses. The next date fixed is March 20, 2025. 3. The petitioners are in custody for about 2 years and 7 months. We do not see the possibility of an early conclusion of the trial. 4. Further, none of the witnesses who have deposed so far are eye-witnesses. We are told that there is one eye-witness but he has not been examined. We are really at a loss to understand why the best witness is not examined by the prosecution at the very beginning of the trial or may be Signed By : SANDIP DE High Court of Calcutta 12 th of February 2025 10:05:58 AM 2 immediately after the de facto complainant is examined. We see in many cases that the best or better witnesses are examined at the end of the trial. This practice is very strange according to us. 5. As of date, there is no evidence of any eye-witness implicating these petitioners. They are in custody for a long period of time. 6. Without touching the merits of the case and solely on the touchstone of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, we feel constrained to enlarge the petitioners on bail, but on stringent conditions. 7. Accordingly, we direct that the petitioners, namely, Wasim Alam @ Wasim Akram and Gulame Waris @ Ladla Qureshi 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, Barrackpore, North 24-Parganas and on further conditions that they shall remain with the jurisdiction of the Howrah Police Station and shall provide the current address where they shall presently reside to the Inspector-in-Charge of the Howrah police station and on further condition that the petitioners shall meet the Inspector-in-Charge of the Howrah police station twice a week until further order. 8. The petitioners shall appear before the trial Court on every date of hearing until further orders and shall not intimidate Signed By : SANDIP DE High Court of Calcutta 12 th of February 2025 10:05:58 AM 3 the witnesses and/or tamper with evidence in any manner whatsoever. 9. 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. 10. The application for bail is, accordingly, allowed. 11. 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 : SANDIP DE High Court of Calcutta 12 th of February 2025 10:05:58 AM