The Supreme Court on Friday quashed an Allahabad high court order granting bail to two men accused of firing at All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi's vehicle in Uttar Pradesh in February and gave them one week to surrender.
The top court said the seriousness of the alleged offence has not been considered by the high court.
A bench of justices M R Shah and M M Sundresh said the high court did not accord any reason while giving bail.
The apex court remanded the matter back to the high court for fresh consideration and directed Sachin Sharma and Shubham Gurjar to surrender before the police within a week.
The top court also directed the high court to decide the bail applications of the two accused within four weeks from the date of surrender.
"Having gone through the impugned judgement of the high court, it can be seen that there are no reasons given at all by the high court while releasing the accused on bail.
"It has also not given any prima facie opinion on material collected during the course of the investigation which is now forming the part of charge sheet. Even the seriousness the offence alleged has not been considered by the high court. In that view of the matter, the impugned judgement of the high court needs to be quashed and set aside," the bench said.
In his petition before the apex court, Owaisi challenged the bail granted to them, saying this was a classic example of a disproportionate amount of prejudice and hate-related crimes leading to the incident of an attempt to murder and the target was a known MP.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief's car was attacked in Hapur while he was returning to Delhi after attending election-related events in western Uttar Pradesh on February 3, a week before assembly polls began in the state.
Later, the police arrested three persons -- Sharma, Gurjar, and Aalim -- for their alleged involvement in the incident.
The top court in September dismissed the challenge to the bail granted to Aalim.
In his plea, Owaisi submitted that after accused Sachin came out on bail, he again threatened the petitioner with serious consequences.
The said statement made in public is grave and requires to be taken into cognisance. More importantly, the accused has not denied his involvement rather it appears that he is taking pride in undertaking this crime, the plea said, adding that Owaisi was the victim of the incident of this attempt of murder by the accused whose action was recorded in CCTV footage which was now part of the charge sheet.
After the arrest of the accused, the police said two pistols were seized from their possession and a Maruti Alto car was also impounded.
The FIR was lodged at Pilakhua Police Station under various provisions of the IPC, including Section 307 (attempt to murder).
