The Sessions court has rejected the temporary bail plea of a man accused of trafficking and forging documents to aid trafficking of a minor last year.
His co-accused had been detained at the international airport when they had approached the immigration counter with the minor. They had planned to take him to Mexico using forged and duplicate Aadhaar card and passport, prepared by the applicant in his Aadhaar Card Kendra. The case was transferred from the Sahar police to the Detection Crime Branch due to its seriousness.
The accused Anurag Shukla, a resident of Delhi had sought temporary bail citing the directions of the High Power Committee of their meeting of May 11. His advocate had argued that one of Shukla’s co-accused was granted bail in December last year. Shukla has been behind bars since his arrest, he told court.
The prosecution objected to his release on bail informing court that a bail plea filed by Shukla before the HC is fixed for hearing on June 11, an aspect he had not disclosed to court, it told. Further, additional public prosecutor Geeta Nayyar argued that he had fabricated many documents and there was digital evidence against him. She also informed court that he is a resident of Delhi and there is possibility of him absconding.
Additional Sessions judge Abhijeet A Nandgaonkar observed in his order that Shukla had suppressed in his plea that his bail plea is pending before the High Court and that a previous bail plea had been rejected in March last year, as pointed by the prosecution, which dis-entitled him from seeking interim bail.
The court also considered that the offence in which Shukla is charged is trafficking of a minor, which is punishable with imprisonment from 10 years up to life in prison, clearly dis-entitling him from claiming interim bail. Also, the directions of the HC to consider merit of the case does not entitle him to claim interim bail, it said.
