The court today said that there is no serious dereliction of duty on the part of the public prosecutor.

Kochi (Kerala):

Kerala High Court on Friday cancelled the bail granted to a man accused of raping and killing a schoolgirl and dumping her body in the Valparai town of Tamil Nadu in January this year.

“The bail order dated May 12, 2020, is cancelled invoking the powers under Section 439 (2) Code of Criminal Procedure. The bail application will stand dismissed,” a single-judge bench of Justice PV Kunhikrishnan said in its order.

Earlier, the high court had directed the police to immediately arrest the man identified as Safarshah, who was earlier granted bail by the court. The accused was arrested in compliance with the order thereafter.

The order had come on a petition which submitted that the accused got bail after the defence counsel misled the court by claiming that the chargesheet in the matter was not submitted before a court within 90 days.

The court today said that there is no serious dereliction of duty on the part of the public prosecutor. “When the mistake is identified the prosecutor brought to the notice of this court about his mistake, and therefore the proceeding against him was dropped,” the bench said.

Senior public prosecutor had filed a petition, seeking recall of the order stating that the submission made by the public prosecutor was an inadvertent mistake.

The court also accepted the apology tendered by the counsel for the accused.