Interim bail during Covid-19 can be denied where release criteria, flight risk, and parity claims are not established.

Interim bail during the Covid-19 period may be refused where the applicant does not meet the release criteria framed by the High Powered Committee, particularly in cases involving a foreign national, multiple cases, and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Parity with co-accused is unavailable where the cited persons are not similarly placed, such as an approver or a person relying on separate medical grounds. The court also treated flight risk, lack of local roots, and separate housing in jail as factors against release, and held that alleged overcrowding or pandemic vulnerability did not justify interim bail on these facts.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to interim bail on the grounds of the Covid-19 pandemic, alleged jail overcrowding, long pendency of the regular bail applications, and parity with co-accused.

Analysis: The applications were considered on their own merits because the regular bail pleas could not be heard at that stage. The petitioner did not satisfy the criteria fixed by the High Powered Committee for release during the pandemic, since the case involved a foreign national, more than one case, and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The claim of parity was not accepted because the cited co-accused stood on a different footing, including the status of being an approver, medical grounds, or not being similarly placed in the CBI case. The Court also found that the petitioner was a flight risk and lacked roots in society, and rejected the plea that jail conditions or Covid-19 vulnerability justified release, noting that the petitioner was housed in a separate cell.

Conclusion: Interim bail was not warranted and the applications were rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: Interim bail may be declined where the applicant does not satisfy the applicable release criteria, poses a flight risk, and the asserted health or parity grounds are not made out on the facts.

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