Allahabad High Court rejects anticipatory bail plea of Azam Khan

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Samajwadi Party Member of Parliament, Azam Khan (Mohammad Azam Khan v. State of UP)..A Single Judge Bench of Justice Rajeev Singh rejected the application, noting that Khan was already under detention and that a B-warrant has been issued against him. The order states,"In view of the facts and discussions made above, the applicant is deemed to be in custody in relation to the present F.I.R. No.02 of 2018 after service of the B-warrant issued by the competent court under the provisions of Section 267(1) Cr.P.C. 10. In view of the above, the preliminary objection raised by the learned A.G.A. has force. Accordingly, the present anticipatory bail application under Section 438 Cr.P.C. is not maintainable and is hereby rejected.".The anticipatory bail plea was filed in connection with a crime wherein Khan was charged under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public, servant), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13(1)(d) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2018..While opposing the pre-arrest bail plea, counsel for the State raised a preliminary objection with regard to its maintainability, given the fact that Khan was already detained in District Jail, Sitapur in relation to another case.Further, it was highlighted that a B-warrant had been issued against Khan by a court on April 18 last year..Counsel for Khan argued that mere service of B-warrant does not mean that the applicant has been taken into custody in the present case..Noting that the preliminary objection raised by the State had force, the Court decided that the plea was not maintainable. Further, it held,"The prayer of the learned counsel for the applicant for default bail in the present proceedings also cannot be considered, and in this regard the applicant may move appropriate application before the appropriate court, if he so chooses.".Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and and IB Singh appeared for Khan, while Additional Government Advocate Santosh Kumar Mishra appeared for the State..[Read order]