Supreme Court: Non-Recovery of Material Doesn’t Mean Accused Is Non-Cooperative in Anticipatory Bail Case

The Supreme Court held that failure to recover incriminating material cannot by itself be treated as non-cooperation by an accused seeking anticipatory bail.

A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Ujjal Bhuyan was dealing with a case where the appellant was implicated solely on the basis of a co-accused’s confessional statement. The State alleged non-cooperation as the appellant claimed he threw his mobile phone in a river.

Further, he joined the investigation, and no efforts were made to gather call records or conduct raids. The Court made its interim protection order absolute, subject to conditions ensuring cooperation and non-interference.

[Jugraj Singh v State of Punjab]