Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad
The case involved Baldev Rabari, whom Gandhinagar Sector-7 police arrested in March after filing an FIR against him under GujCTOC. They submitted that 10 offences were shown against Rabari, and the police relied on five FIRs to invoke the special law.
His counsel, Mitesh Amin and Anurag Rathod, argued that Rabari had been falsely implicated and that no substantive “triggering offence” justified invoking the GujCTOC. After discussing the essential requirements for invocation of GujCTOC, Justice H D Suthar granted bail to Rabari and stated, “The conclusion of trial will take time and keeping the accused behind bars is nothing but amounts to pre-trial conviction and therefore, considering the celebrated principle of bail jurisprudence is that ‘bail is a rule and jail is exception’ as well as the concept of personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, present application deserves consideration. ” Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court has granted regular bail to an accused under Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organized Crime Act (GujCTOC), holding that prolonged incarceration and likely delays in the trial warranted release. He approached HC for bail. They also argued that the co-accused had already been granted bail, entitling Rabari to parity, that the investigation was over with nothing left to recover, and that the accused had been behind bars since March. The prosecution opposed the bail plea, citing his specific role in the offence and the denial of the benefit of parity. It also cited the risk of evidence tampering and relied on call detail records to assert prima facie involvement in serious offences, including attempt to murder, extortion, theft, grievous hurt and unlawful assembly.