Our Correspondent
Mokokchung | July 28
The hearing on the plea for bail of managing director of Specular North East RK Nath alias Shampu Das was held in the court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class Mokokchung Ajongba Imchen here today. The court denied the bail petition put up by Sherin Marboniang, the wife of the accused, put up through defense counsel LB Namo.
The court of the Judicial Magistrate observed that the allegations leveled against RK Nath by the employees of Specular North East are “serious in nature”, and so rejected the bail petition. The hearing was actually scheduled to be held yesterday, July 27. However it was deferred to July 28 as the magistrate was engaged in other tasks.
A copy of the court’s order, made available to the media by the ‘All Nagaland SNE Employees’ today stated that the counsel for the defendant asserted the ‘alleged accused’ RK Nath to be a bonafide citizen of India and have right to enjoy the Fundamental Rights enshrined under the Constitution of India.
He has never been convicted in any criminal offense nor had involved in any anti-state activities, and also the accused is not required for custodial interrogation. Besides, the defense lawyer argued that the accused was arrested not under offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life.
The defense lawyer also argued that the bail petitioner is the wife of the accused and an executive member of SNE and “can produce the alleged accused whenever called for his presence in the court and will not tamper the evidences if released on bail.” Besides, the defense bench argued that there is a “local bailor having movable and immovable property under the jurisdiction of this court and ready to abide any bail terms and condition, if the court is pleased to released accused RK Nath on bail.”
The court order further stated that counsel for the complainant, Repentsung was present for the complainant and submitted “that the present accused was arrested only after issuing non-bailable warrant of arrest with great difficulty and the offence is very serious in nature where 3000 members were registered and deposit amounting to Rs 1,03,83,775/, and there is every likelihood to escape from the court of law if release on bail at this stage.”
The counsel for the complainant even cited a Supreme Court ruling in AIR 2003 SC 707, Mansab Ali Vs Irsau “since the jurisdiction is discretionary, it is required to be exercised with great care and caution by balancing valuable rights of liberty of an individual and the interest of the society in general”.
After hearing both the counsels and having perused all the available record the magistrate passed an observation that RK Nath was arrested by the state police from Guwahati only after issuing non-bailable arrest warrant against him. The court also observed that the allegation against the accused is ‘serious’ in nature with many citizens registering with the Specular North East and deposited huge amounts of money.
“In view of the above mentioned observation and also after considering the circumstances of the case and for the interest of justice, it is my considered opinion that the liberty of a citizen has got to be balance with the interest of the society, as such I am inclined to reject the present bail petition,” the magistrate ruled. The date for ‘prosecution witnesses’ has been fixed on August 8, 2010, the court order stated.
