'Brutal Murder' Of Journalist Vikram Joshi: Allahabad High Court Rejects Bail Plea Of The Lone Accused

The Allahabad High Court recently denied bail to the lone accused in the Journalist Vikram Joshi Murder case. Joshi was shot in the head, in front of his two minor daughters in July 2020 in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district.

Denying him bail, the Bench of Justice Rahul Chaturvedi noted that the facts and circumstances of the case showed the involvement of the applicant alone in committing the brutal murder of Joshi, a journalist.

The facts in brief 

Joshi was allegedly shot dead in front of his two daughters aged 5 and 11 while he was returning home on a bike in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad in July 2020 for allegedly protesting against the harassment of his niece.

As per the CCTV Footage, Joshi was seen riding a two-wheeler accompanied by his daughters. He was stopped and assaulted by a group of men and they started beating him. Thereafter, the bail applicant fired a gun at Joshi and he fell to the ground and died the next day.

The Counsel for the accused had submitted before the Court that though he was named accused in the FIR, but the entire prosecution case is based on the confessional statement of the other co-accused persons along with the recovery of one countrymade pistol from his possession.

On this, it was urged by the counsel that he has got no criminal motive or mens rea to commit the murder and that since all other accused persons are admitted or bail by co-ordinate Bench of the Court on different accusations, thus the applicant too, was entitled to bail.

On the other hand, the Counsel for the State submitted before the Court that initially the FIR was registered under Section 307, 34, 506 IPC, however, since Joshi died one day after the incident, the case was registered against the Accused/applicant under sections 147, 148, 149, 302, 506, 34 IPC.

It was further submitted by the State Counsel that all the charge-sheeted had accused unequivocally attributed the role of firing to the present applicant and since a countrymade pistol was also recovered from the pocket of the applicant, therefore, all the circumstances led to the conclusion that the Applicant alone was responsible for the murder of Joshi.

Taking into account the totality of the circumstances, the Court observed the following:

• The applicant is named in the FIR as one of the assailants with Aakash committing the murder of the deceased, however, Aakash's name was dropped from an array of actual assaulters.
• All the arrested accused persons in no uncertain terms indicted the applicant alone in causing the murder of the journalist and lastly, the weapon of assault was also recovered from the possession of pocket of the applicant alone.

"All these facts cumulatively joined involvement of the applicant alone in committing the brutal murder of the deceased journalist cannot be ruled out and thus bail of the applicant stands REJECTED," the Court ordered as it directed the trial court to conclude the trial expeditiously.

Case title - Sahnoor @ Chhotu v. State of U.P.

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