By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Tuesday cancelled the bail of former Gujarat legislator Jayrajsinh Jadeja, who is facing trial in two murder cases and is also involved in at least 10 other criminal cases.
While cancelling the former Bharatiya Janata Party legislator’s bail in two separate murder cases, a bench of Justices Ashok Bhan and Altmas Kabir came down heavily on the Gujarat High Court for granting him bail and staying his prosecution.
The bench set aside the February 2007 order of the high court and ordered Jadeja to surrender before the trial court in Gujarat within seven days, failing which, police were to arrest him.
The bench asked the trial court to immediately resume the trial and “take it up on a day-to-day basis and conclude the same within six months”.
The bench also noted that the state’s Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) R.R. Trivedi, who had been entrusted with his trial in the lower court, had close links with Jadeja and had been derailing the trial.
The bench, however, expressed satisfaction over the Gujarat government removing Trivedi from conducting the trial and appointing another APP.
Jadeja is accused of murdering two people – Nilesh Rayani and Vinodrai Singla – in 2004 due to enmity and was facing trial in sessions courts of Gondal and Rajkot in Gujarat.
Censuring a judge of the high court for granting him bail in a murder case, the bench said: “The learned judge has granted the bail” by an order, which reads like “an order of acquittal” and touches upon the “merits of the case”.
It reminded the judge of the apex court’s order on another criminal legislator, Amarmani Tripathi of Uttar Pradesh, saying that “a detailed examination of the evidence is to be avoided while considering the bail plea, to ensure that no pre-judging or prejudice is caused” by the superior court.
Censuring another high court judge for granting bail to Jadeja, the apex court bench said: “The high court has completely ignored the general principle for grant of bail in a heinous crime of murder, in which the sentence, if convicted, is death or life imprisonment.”
Cancelling Jadeja’s bail, the bench said: “It may be mentioned here that apart from the two present cases of murder, Jadeja has been named in 10 other cases, including another case of murder and five cases of attempt to murder, in the last 25 years.”
Expressing surprise over his “acquittal in most of the old cases for want of sufficient evidence”, the bench said, “This speaks volumes. We refrain from saying anything further, lest it may prejudice the trial in these two cases.”
Ticking off the high court judges for staying Jadeja’s trial, the bench pointed out that only his accomplices were responsible for forcing the trial court to adjourn the case by their repeated failure to face trial.