The Rajasthan High Court has dismissed a batch of appeals seeking bail filed by five accused in the NIA case arising from the 2022 murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, holding that the accused failed to satisfy the stringent requirements for bail under Section 43D(5) of the UAPA.
The Division Bench comprising of Chief Justice Sanjay K Agrawal and Justice Sameer Jain held that the prosecution material, taken at face value, disclosed a prima facie case against the accused and that the allegations attributed specific roles to them in the larger criminal conspiracy. The Court noted that the NIA had completed its investigation, filed the charge-sheet and that charges had already been framed by the Trial Court.
The accused had argued that they had remained in custody for more than four-and-a-half years and relied on the Supreme Court’s decisions in Union of India v. K.A. Najeeb, (2021) 3 SCC 713 and Syed Iftikhar Andrabi v. NIA, 2026 SCC Online SC 881 to contend that prolonged incarceration and the right to a speedy trial under Article 21 warranted their release on bail.
Rejecting the contention, the High Court observed that the trial was progressing at a rapid pace. The prosecution had reduced its witness list from 180 to 89 witnesses, with around 30 material witnesses already examined. The Court therefore held that the case was distinguishable from those involving extraordinary or indefinite trial delays where Article 21 may justify bail notwithstanding the statutory restrictions under the UAPA.
The Court further held that at the bail stage, it was not permissible to conduct a mini-trial or conclusively examine issues concerning the admissibility or reliability of electronic evidence and the defence of the accused. Such questions, it said, were matters for determination during trial.
Finding that the gravity of the alleged offence, the specific roles attributed to the appellants, the alleged organised criminal conspiracy and the continuing progress of the trial disentitled them to bail at this stage, the Bench affirmed the Trial Court’s orders rejecting their bail applications and dismissed the batch of appeals.
