NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has set aside an order of the Madras High Court granting bail to a man who was accused of murdering a key eyewitness in an attempt-to-murder case when he was out on bail. After the alleged murder, the trial court had cancelled his bail, but the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had overruled the trial court order, and had restored the bail of the accused. The appeal was filed in the Supreme Court this year against that HC order.

Noting that the bail order of the HC was vitiated by perversity, arbitrariness and non-application of mind, a two-judge bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan recently said that the Madras HC had granted bail to the main accused, Gopalakrishnan, and others in the attempt to murder case without considering the fact that the main suspect was also accused of murdering a key eyewitness while he was out on bail. The apex court bench then directed the accused to surrender within two weeks before the trial court.

The appellant, Lakshmanan, had been assaulted along with his friend Suresh on February 24, 2020, allegedly by a group led by the first accused, Gopalakrishnan.

The attack, which included caste-based abuses, was registered under various sections of the IPC including 307 (attempt to murder) and Section 3(2)(va) of the SC/ST (POA) Act. The accused were granted bail by the trial court in September 2020.