India News | Concept of Transit Bail No Longer Relevant in Age of Online Case Hearings, Says Gujarat HC

Ahmedabad, Jul 28 (PTI) The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday extended by one day the protection from arrest given to retired DGP R B Sreekumar in the FIR against him in connection with the alleged ISRO espionage case, and observed that the concept of "transit bail' as sought by him was no longer relevant in the age of online case hearings.

The court said it will pronounce on Thursday its order on his transit bail application.

Sreekumar, a Gujarat cadre IPS officer, was named as an accused, along with 17 other retired law enforcement officers, in an FIR filed by the CBI in the 1994 espionage case, in which former ISRO scientist S Nambi Narayanan was allegedly framed.

He had moved the Gujarat High Court for transit bail so he could move the Kerala High Court for anticipatory bail plea.

"Yesterday also there was an application for transit bail for Bengaluru, Karnataka...Now the concept of transit bail no longer remains, when there is online filing, online hearing," observed Justice Vipul Pancholi, while extending his protection from arrest till Thursday when he said he will pass the order.

"He has placed on record order passed by this court in 1992. During those times, the person had to go to another state to search for a lawyer after an FIR was lodged against him. Now, the lawyers can argue (online) sitting here itself... People are even arguing in London sitting here... Now it is possible, in short. His physical presence is not required in Kerala. He can engage advocates of Gujarat, Delhi. Mumbai, Kerala...an application can be filed online," Justice Pancholi said.

The court also questioned Sreekumar's lawyer as to what his client did in the last 20 days when the matter of his transit bail was pending with the Gujarat High Court. He could have filed the application in Kerala court during this time, it said.

Sreekumar's lawyer agreed that the matter can be filed online, and sought relief from the court for two days. The court, however, agreed to grant him interim relief for one more day and said it will pronounce its order on his plea at 2.30 pm on Thursday.

Between July 1992 and April 1995, Sreekumar was posted as the deputy director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) at Thiruvananthapuram, then promoted as IGP in IB and remained at the post till July 2000 before being repatriated to the Gujarat cadre.

In its FIR, the CBI had booked Sreekumar and others in IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfei­ture 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt). Other IPC sections which were invoked against them included 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession) 195 (giving or fabricating false evidence), 348 (wrongful confinement to extort confession), 477 A (falsification of accounts) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

The Supreme Court had directed the CBI to conduct further investigation into the allegations of framing Nambi Narayanan, an aerospace engineer who worked for the ISRO, on the basis of the findings of a three-member committee under retired apex court judge DK Jain. In its FIR, the CBI named 18 former Kerala police officers, including Sreekumar.

Narayanan, who was working at ISRO's Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, was absolved of the 1994 espionage charges following the CBI probe, after which he had approached the apex court seeking action against Kerala police officials.

Sreekumar had a run-in with the then chief minister Narendra Modi on the issue of the 2002 Gujarat communal riots.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)