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Aashish Yadav v. Yashpal

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 666Decided 13 May 2025
Criminal Appeal No. 2573 of 2025 (arising from SLP (Crl.) No. 14681 of 2024)
Justice K.V. Viswanathan · Justice Prasanna B. Varale

Background

During a marriage procession, an armed contract killer allegedly hired by the respondents shot and killed one man, Aman Yadav, and injured two others, amid an existing enmity between the families. The respondents (alleged masterminds who hired the shooter) were arrested after evading capture for months, and a supplementary chargesheet concluded they had conspired to kill the victim. The Rajasthan High Court nonetheless granted them bail on the ground that other, more peripheral co-accused had already been granted bail on similar allegations. The appellant (representing the victim's side) challenged this before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court set aside the bail, holding that the High Court seriously erred in treating the respondents, described in the investigation as the masterminds who engaged the contract killer, as on the same footing as lesser co-accused whose bail had been granted on different, weaker considerations (such as one accused's advanced age). The Court emphasised that an FIR is only a starting point for investigation, not an exhaustive account, and that sufficient material collected during investigation (witness statements, weapon recovery, the accused's own prolonged evasion of arrest) showed active involvement in a planned killing, distinguishing their case from the co-accused. It directed the respondents to surrender within two weeks.

Lesson Learnt

Bail "on parity" is valid only when the accused's role and the evidence against them are genuinely comparable to the co-accused already granted bail. Courts must scrutinise the actual evidence developed during investigation, not just superficial similarities in the charges.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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