Mulund terror convict’s bail rejected

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday rejected the bail application filed by convict Saquib Nachan in the Mulund bomb blast case. The high court refused to grant him bail on the ground that when Nachan was on bail, a case of attempt to murder was registered against him.

Though Nachan has been granted bail in that very case, the high court did not consider this as a change in circumstances because he was granted bail on technical grounds and not on merits. Nachan had filed the bail application before the division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Amjad Sayed, saying that now he has been behind bars only because he has not been granted bail in the Mulund blast case. He said the reason for refusal to give him bail is the registration of an attempt to murder case against him while he has secured bail in that case too.

Advocate Sudeep Pasbola on behalf of Nachan argued that in the Mulund blast case he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and he has already served nine years of sentence.  The lawyer told the court that he is expected to complete his 10-year sentence in December 2017 so he should be granted bail. The bench, however, noted that in the past also Nachan had filed bail plea in the blast case but the HC was not inclined to grant him bail because registration of serious crime against him show he misused liberty granted to him.

The bench observed that the trial court has granted bail to Nachan in the attempt to murder case because the police could not file chargesheet against him on time. Justice Oka said because the bail was granted on technical grounds, the high court cannot consider this as change in circumstance and rejected his bail plea.