Man absconding for 22 yrs arrested; gets bail again

Court cites ‘bail is rule, jail exception’

A man who absconded midtrial in a 1989 case while on bail and was arrested 22 years later in June this year, was granted bail by a special CBI court on Monday by citing the legal doctrine that ‘bail is a rule, jail an exception’.

Vinayak Dhonde, a Colaba resident, had been arrested in 1989 in the offence pertaining to theft of iron worth Rs. 25,000 with the aid of a public servant by bribing him. The metal was loaded in a truck and covered with grass. He had spent a year in custody before being granted bail back then.

The trial in the case had begun in 1993. After Dhonde’s statement was recorded by the court in 1999, while he was on bail, he had stopped attending trial. The court had then declared him an absconder. His co-accused had been convicted by a judgment only in 2015. In an appeal, the judgment had been set aside and the co-accused was acquitted in 2018.

After Dhonde’s arrest this year, a supplementary chargesheet was filed against him by the CBI in August. Special Judge SH Gwalani cited in his order that ‘Bail is a rule, jail is an exception’ is a legal doctrine that was laid down by the Supreme Court in a landmark judgment. The court said further that the doctrine was laid down by the apex court based on the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Judge Gwalani further said that every accused person is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. “The effect of granting bail is not to set the accused free, but to release him from custody and entrust him to his bond and the custody of his sureties who are bound to produce him to appear at his trial”

The court further considered that the co-accused had been acquitted after a reversal of the trial court’s order.