'Silent' Sunil, accused of plotting dacoity gets bail

The Supreme Court has granted bail to gangster Sunil Kumar aka ‘Silent’ Sunil in a case of dacoity conspiracy. The court noted that he was in jail at the time of the incident on February 19, 2017.

“How can a person already in custody be arrested in a case related to the planning of dacoity? Whether he was a part of the conspiracy is a matter of trial,” a bench of Justices R Banumathi and Indira Banerjee told state counsel V N Raghupathy on Tuesday.

Conspiracy from jail

Opposing the bail plea, the counsel argued that Sunil faced 17 criminal cases and had hatched the conspiracy from the jail.

Senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, representing Sunil, who claims to be an activist of Karunada Sene, submitted that his client had been acquitted or discharged in all other cases, except two.

After hearing both the parties, the top court granted bail to Sunil, subject to the satisfaction of the competent court.

“Even though the petitioner is said to be involved in 17 cases and the prosecution alleges a conspiracy between the petitioner and the co-accused, at this stage, we are not inclined to go into the merits of the said contention,” the bench said.

The bench said the trial court may impose any condition for releasing Sunil from jail.

Sunil has challenged the validity of a June 21, 2018, order passed by the High Court of Karnataka to deny him bail in the dacoity conspiracy case registered by the Yelahanka police under Sections 399, 402, 120B of the IPC and the Arms Act.

Police swooped down on 10 people following specific information that they were planning to commit robbery.

Two vehicles and a huge quantity of arms were seized from them.

Police also invoked the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act, 2000, against the suspects.