Quoting the supreme court’s observation that “An accused person who enjoys freedom is in a much better position to look after his case and to properly defend himself than if he were in custody”, the Special Judge (NIA) said it would be just and fair to let the accused be on bail so as to defend himself properly.
TFM Desk
A special NIA court on Tuesday granted default bail to Mark T Haokip, who has been in jail for over 10 months for his alleged conspiracy to secede from India and to wage war against the nation after the chargesheet filed by the state government was incomplete.
Special Judge (NIA), Imphal West RK Memcha Devi held that the first Charge-Sheet was an incomplete one as sanctions were not taken and filed for prosecuting under Sections 120-B/121/121-A/123/511 IPC & Sec.17/18 UA(P)Act while submitting it.
She also observed that while registering the case by her Predecessor and assigning a case number, it appears that cognizance was not taken, but registered the case as Sessions Trial Case so as to consider the matter when proper Sanctions etc are being filed by way of Supplementary Chargesheet or so.
“The charge sheet was in a way not complete for want of Sanctions for other offences but not for Sec 400 IPC. However, as no cognizance was also taken under Sec.400 PC, it may be impliedly presumed that no cognizance was taken under Sec.400 IPC also,” she added.
The judge observed that as the accused has been in custody for more than the statutory period, the accused is entitled to default bail.
Further, the stage in the main case is coming for charge consideration. By the submission of the Supplementary Charge-Sheet, it may also be said that the investigation of the case is completed and in such a situation, further custody of the accused would not be necessary, she said.
Quoting the supreme court’s observation that “An accused person who enjoys freedom is in a much better position to look after his case and to properly defend himself than if he were in custody”, the Special Judge (NIA) said it would be just and fair to let the accused be on bail so as to defend himself properly.
She allowed the accused to go bail on his furnishing a PR Bond of Rs 2 lakh with two sureties (Gazetted Officer) of the like amount.
Mark T Haokip was granted bail on conditions that he shall not abscond but present himself before the court on every date(s) fixed; influence prosecution witness(es) so as to dissuade the witness(es) from disclosing facts before the court; leave the state of Manipur without prior permission of the court, and commit a similar offence while on bail.
Mark Thangmang Haokip was arrested by a team of the Manipur Police from Kishangarh, New Delhi on May 24 last year after multiple FIRs were lodged against him for his alleged provocative social media posts. He was brought to Imphal on May 27.
The state government alleged that Mark Thangmang Haokip is the President of an outfit organisation called ‘Government of the People’s Democratic Republic of Kukiland’ [PDRK] which is involved in a conspiracy for secession from India and to wage or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against the Government of India. He is also allegedly involved in spreading propaganda on social media platforms to create instability, communal hatred, animosity, inciting violence, false propaganda, etc. so as to achieve the organizational goal of Govt. of Kukiland.