Supreme Court sends Bihar MLA back to jail in rape case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday cancelled the bail granted by the Patna high court to suspended RJD MLA Rajballav Prasad accused of raping a minor girl.

A bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and A.M. Sapre set aside the HC order and directed him to surrender.

The bench said, “We are conscious of the fact that the respondent is only an undertrial and his liberty is also a relevant consideration.”

“However, an equally important consideration is the interest of the society and fair trail of the case. In the given case, if it is found that there is a possibility of interdicting fair trial by the accused if released on bail, this public interest of fair trial would outweigh the personal interest of the accused while undertaking the task of balancing the liberty of the accused on the one hand and interest of the society to have a fair trial on the other hand.”

Justice Sikri writing the judgment said when the witnesses are not able to depose correctly in the court of law, it results in low rate of conviction and many times even hardened criminals escape the conviction.

It shakes public confidence in the criminal justice delivery system. It is this need for larger public interest to ensure that criminal justice delivery system works efficiently, smoothly and in a fair manner that has to be given prime importance in such situations. After all, if there is a threat to fair trial because of intimidation of witnesses etc., that would happen because of wrongdoing of the accused himself, and the consequences thereof, he has to suffer.

The court noted that in this case the accused was absconding after the FIR was registered and he avoided arrest. He surrendered only after a month.

The prosecutrix and the family members had made complaints that they were being threatened and intimidated by the accused and this factor had not been considered by the Patna high court while granting bail.

This is not a fit case for grant of bail to the respondent at this stage and grave error is committed by the high court in this behalf.