NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has refused to grant bail to an alleged gang-leader arrested in a case of murder stemming from inter-gang rivalry.
Dismissing the bail application of Irfan, Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar said his past record was "very disturbing and dangerous" and his release at this stage would be fatal to all the other pending cases where witnesses were turning hostile one after the other.
"One cannot lose sight of the fact that the petitioner is involved in 25 cases of heinous nature and he is claimed by the prosecution to be the leader of infamous Chhenu gang.
"Fourteen cases against the petitioner are still pending trial and the release of the petitioner at this stage, may hamper the trial of those pending cases," said the judge in his order dated September 2.
The court rejected the petitioner's argument that he was not present at the spot of the alleged murder and opined that for the offence of conspiracy, physical presence was not mandatory.
The case of the prosecution is the petitioner was the kingpin and he hatched the conspiracy due to inter-gang rivalry. In these circumstances, the presence of the petitioner at the spot is not required as conspiracies are hatched in secrecy and it is not for the conspirators to be physically present at the spot. Each conspirator plays the role assigned to him in the commission of a crime, the judge said.
"Looking into the entire facts and circumstances of this case, conduct and antecedents of the petitioner and his propensity to commit a crime, I am not inclined to admit the petitioner on bail," the court ruled.
The prosecution opposed grant bail and claimed that the petitioner played a pivotal role in the conspiracy with his brother and other co-accused and selected targets to avenge the murder of his gang members.
The petitioner argued that he had been falsely implicated on the charges of conspiracy as he was not present at the spot. The victim in the case was shot using a "sophisticated automatic weapon" by the co-accused in northeast Delhi in 2017.
