Mumbai The Bombay high court (HC) has granted bail to Manoj Gajkosh, one of the accused in April 2012 sensational murder of businessman Arunkumar Tikku (67).
A single-judge bench of justice Bharati Dangre granted Gajkosh bail primarily in view of the fact that he had already spent about a decade behind bars, but the end of the trial is nowhere in sight.
Gajkosh, accused of killing the businessman for purportedly usurping his property worth over ₹50 crore, had moved the HC for bail in July 2021, through advocate Prashant Pandey. The lawyer contended that according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in September 2014, life imprisonment is considered to be of 20 years and since Gajkosh had already spent more than half of the punishment attracted for the crime in question, he deserved to be released on bail.
Advocate Pandey also pointed out that the trial had not progressed despite two high court orders expediting the trial.
Gajkosh was arrested on April 10, 2012 – three days after the 67-year-old businessman was found murdered.
Assistant public prosecutor Anamika Malhotra opposed the bail plea, by pointing out that Gajkosh is one of the actual assailants who was responsible for the death of the senior citizen and the complainant had witnessed the assault and identified him in the test identification parade. Another witness has also identified the accused in the identification parade she had submitted, further pointing out that the CDR collected by the police showed that he was in touch with other accused in the case at the relevant time.
Her arguments, however, failed to impress upon the high court, which ordered Gajkosh to be released on furnishing personal bond of ₹25,000 and one or two sureties in the like amount.
“In the wake of above authoritative pronouncement of the highest court of this country, long incarceration of the applicant for a decade, with the conclusion of the trial not being in sight, since 34 more witnesses are to be examined, the applicant deserves to be released on bail,” said justice Dangre, referring to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Indrani Mukerjea’s case.
Mukerjea, accused of killing her own daughter Sheena Bora, was held by the apex court to be entitled to bail, as she had spent over six years behind bars and the end of the trial was nowhere in sight, as several witnesses were yet to be examined.