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The Allahabad High Court has denied bail to Kheem Singh Bora, alleged Secretary of Bhartiya Communist Party (Maoist), a banned organisation.

Bora was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in July 2019 from the Bareilly railway station when he was going to participate in a meeting at Dhanbad, Jharkhand related to the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

A case was registered against Bora under Sections 3/25 of Arms Act and 20/38 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Notably, Bora is carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 as announced by Uttarakhand police in 2017.

The bench of Justice Krishan Pahal passed the order stressing that Bora is wanted in five criminal cases which include a sedition case and he is not on bail in any of the cases.

Court observed that the criminal antecedents of an accused though always not determinative of question whether bail is to be granted or not, yet their relevance cannot be totally ignored.

Therefore, Court opined that though the past criminal antecedents of Bora would not have been relevant if the subject matter being adjudicated had seemed to be a fit case for bail but in the instant matter Bora was required to explain his criminal history.

Accordingly, considering the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and the arguments advanced by counsel for the parties as also the criminal antecedents of Bora, Court refused to grant him bail.

As per the prosecution story, when Bora was arrested by the UP ATS, one country made pistol, five live cartridges and literature related to the Bhartiya Communist Party (Maoist) was recovered from him.

However, Bora’s counsel had argued that Bora had been falsely implicated in the instant case and the pamphlets recovered from the Bora’s possession pertained to the year 2012-13 and had nothing to do with the date of his arrest.

Authenticity of Bora’s arrest had also been challenged alleging that instead of July 17, 2019, as was shown on record, Bora was arrested from Dolchina, P.S. Saniya, District Almora, State of Uttarakhand on July 15, 2019.

However, taking note of Bora’s criminal history and his alleged association with the banned organisation, Court did not find his case fit for granting bail.

Case Title: Kheem Singh Bora @ Matrey @ Prakash @ Rajan @ Vijaypahru v. State Of U.P. Thru A.T.S. Lucknow