Judiciary should set example by denying anticipatory bail for culprits'

Mangalore, November 9: Mocking at the practice of the elite of getting themselves admitted to hospital when caught in legal net, Justice Michael Saldanha said that Judiciary should set example by denying or holding the plea for anticipatory bail by such culprits till they recuperate and get discharged from the hospitals.

Addressing a news conference in Mangalore on Tuesday, Justice Michael Saldanha speaking about recent church vandalism incident and the recent trends that have emerged as the repercussion to political instability in the State, said that, of the cases filed in the Karnataka State where illness is pleaded, only 1.4 per cent have some substance in it while the rest are all fake.

“In most of the cases it is only the powerful who either fall ill or are out of station when the police come searching for them. The poor are always caught and produced before the Court. The Court should come out clear and say that if you are absconding then you are disqualified to get anticipatory bail,” Justice Saldanha said adding that there is 'zero justification for hospitalisation' in most of the cases in the Karnataka State .

With regard to the VIP treatment given to the ministers and other notorious criminals in jails, Justice Saldanha said that details must be sought with regard to the money spent to provide special facilities at Parappana Agrahara Prison as well as other jails where these Ministers have been kept.

“It is better to construct a tunnel from Vidhana Saudha to Parappana Agrahara so that at least traffic in this route will be relaxed,” he said in a lighter tone.

Justice Saldanha said that while congestion in Court prevents poor from getting a bail for several days or months, these elite criminals when arrested by the police, manage to get bail in matter of hours.

“In special cases, applications are taken out of turn, even while 1,700 applicants wait in queue for their turn to come,” he said questioning as to under which provision of law these people are given special treatment.

With regard to recent vandalism in churches in the city, Justice Saldanha said that there is a need to have incisive investigation into the same as he feels that there are invisible hands playing behind these incidents.

“These are not sporadic incidents. Instead they are pre-planned. If these are sporadic incidents, then why have the vandalism taken place in prayer halls of one particular religion. If the person responsible for the incident is a lunatic venting out his frustration, has he vented it out at a religious centre of one religion and not anywhere else,” the Justice questioned.