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Subhelal @ Sushil Sahu v. The State of Chhattisgarh

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 242Decided 18 Feb 2025
Criminal Appeal No. 818/2025 (@ SLP (Crl.) No. 1314/2025)
Justice J.B. Pardiwala · Justice R. Mahadevan

Background

The appellant was accused, along with four others, of running a cryptocurrency investment scheme that allegedly defrauded around 2,000 investors of roughly Rs. 4 crore, and had been in custody since December 2023. The prosecution intended to call 189 witnesses at trial, but only one had been examined so far, and the case was being tried by a Chief Judicial Magistrate whose maximum sentencing power for the offence was 7 years. The Chhattisgarh High Court had denied him regular bail.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that keeping the appellant in custody indefinitely while 188 more witnesses remained to be examined was disproportionate, and undertook a detailed explanation of Section 437(6) CrPC, which allows (though does not mandate) release on bail if a Magistrate-triable case is not concluded within 60 days of evidence starting, clarifying the factors a Magistrate should weigh (fault for delay, risk of evidence-tampering or absconding, and whether the accused was in custody throughout). Granting bail, the Court additionally required the appellant, given his own admitted role in roughly Rs. 35 lakh of the total fraud, to deposit that sum with the trial court within six months, failing which the bail would automatically stand cancelled.

Lesson Learnt

Being an economic offence with a large number of victims does not by itself justify indefinite pre-trial detention. When a trial is moving at a pace that will keep an undertrial in jail for years before even a fraction of the witnesses are heard, courts can and should grant bail, sometimes with tailored conditions like a partial repayment.

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

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