Chennai: A woman magistrate in Puducherry, who granted bail to all the accused arrested in connection with alleged manufacturing and selling of bogus lottery tickets of other states in Puducherry, may be in trouble.
The Madras High Court has directed the Registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice to decide the desirability of ordering vigilance enquiry into the manner in which all the accused in the case were granted bail by her. Justice P.N. Prakash gave the directive while upholding an order of the Principal Sessions judge, Puducherry, cancelling bail granted to Ravikumar, an accused in the case.
Based on reliable information, the police intercepted two persons and seized lottery tickets of other states. They were arrested and a case was registered. During investigation, it came to light that the accused were selling forged lottery tickets of other states in Puducherry. Ravikumar and other accused were arrested on July 7 this year. His bail applications were dismissed by judicial magistrate-I twice.
When his third bail application was filed, the police filed strong objections and the JM-I adjourned the hearing from time to time. While so, on August 3, when JM-I was on leave, the JM-II, in charge of the court, granted bail to Ravikumar and other accused. On an application filed by the state, the bail granted to Ravikumar was cancelled by PSJ. Aggrieved, Ravikumar filed the present petition.
Dismissing the petition, the judge said in all fairness, the in-charge magistrate should have adjourned the bail application to the next day for being dealt with by the regular magistrate, in as much as JM-I had already dismissed Ravikumar bail applications twice earlier. The in-charge magistrate did not choose to do that. Apart from that, the in-charge magistrate has wished away the strong objections that were filed by the police, which find place in the record. She had very conveniently turned a Nelson’s eye to the objections and proceeded on the “No Objection” stated by the Assistant Public Prosecutor for grant of bail to all the accused in this case, the judge added. The judge said the nature of allegations against the accused was that of manufacturing other states' lottery tickets illegally and selling them.
