Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 23: High Courtof Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has granted interim bail to Tarun Behal, owner of The Sree Times and Aasman newspaper besides several educational institutions, who has been booked in case FIR number 80/2024 under Sections 3/5 of the Official Secrets Act 1923 and 49/353 BNS at Police Station Channi Himmat.
After hearing Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi with Advocate Subham Sharma for the applicant whereas Senior AAG Monika Kohli and Deputy AG Pawan Dev Singh for the UT, Justice Rahul Bharti observed, “on the basis of the facts and circumstances obtaining vis-a-vis the bail petition, this court deems it warranted at this stage to grant interim bail in favour of the petitioner given the fact that he is now in judicial custody and the investigation in the matter is now directed towards the persons within the establishment of the Police from where the so called sensitive/secret information in reference came out in the public domain with petitioner allegedly being the first recipient to make it open in the public domain through WhatsApp mode as alleged in the FIR”.
“Now, just for the sake of serving the satisfaction of the investigating authority that the petitioner shall continue to suffer jail but without any definite investigative purpose that too related to the petitioner is nothing but condemning an accused as a convict from the very inception of investigation”, High Court said, adding “a good police investigation is supposed to chase the evidence gathering related to a case under investigation and not to chain an accused/suspect”.
Accordingly, High Court granted interim bail subject to furnishing of bail bond and surety bond to the tune of Rs 5,00,000 each with rider that the petitioner shall not leave the UT of J&K without prior permission of Investigating Officer concerned; in no manner, the petitioner shall, directly or indirectly, interfere/intermeddle in the course of investigation; the petitioner shall also not in any manner contact/influence/intimidate the witnesses; the petitioner not to come up with any publication related to the case in his WhatsApp group or Newspaper published by him; the petitioner also not to allow any interview of him to be taken by Press related to the subject matter of the FIR or matter related therewith.
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