The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Blasts case: Court declines to grant bail for 16 convicts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 21, 2007
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Blasts case: Court declines to grant bail for 16 convicts

Special Correspondent

“Benefit of suspension only in exceptional cases”
We are not inclined to go into other submissions: Bench

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday declined to either grant bail or suspend the sentences imposed on 16 convicts in the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts case.

A Division Bench, comprising Justices D. Murugesan and V. Periya Karuppiah, said: “Considering the manner in which the occurrence had taken place, the gravity of the offence and the large number of loss of life and the method adopted in the occurrence, we are not inclined to suspend the sentence and grant bail.”

The petitioners, all of them found guilty and sentenced to varying degrees of imprisonment with the maximum period being 13 years, sought bail on the ground that they had already served more than half the imprisonment period. Noting that some similarly placed persons had been granted lesser sentences by the trial court, they submitted that except for a few witnesses there was no evidence against their participation in the crime.

Additional Public Prosecutor P. Kumaresan, however, said the crime left 58 persons dead and 215 injured. More than 215 kg of gelatine sticks, 3,000 detonators, 540 gm of plastic explosives and revolvers were recovered by the police. In their order, the Judges said Section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which dealt with suspension of sentence pending appeal and release of the appellant on bail, said in matters relating to murders, the benefit of suspension of sentence could be granted only in exceptional cases. Also, the court should consider relevant factors like the nature of accusation against the accused, the manner in which the crime was alleged to have been committed, the gravity of the offence and the desirability of releasing the accused on bail after they had been convicted for committing serious offence of murder.

They said: “In view of the discussions and the findings as to the prima facie involvement of the petitioners in the occurrence, right from procuring the explosives in Bangalore, till utilising the same in the occurrence, we are not inclined to go into the other submissions, viz. whether the Judge was right in imposing the punishment of imprisonment for 13 years for the offence under Section 120(b) of IPC rather than sentencing the petitioner only for seven years.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu