Default bail under Section 167(2) fails when the final report is filed within time from the same completed investigation.

Default bail under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure did not arise where the complaint/final report was filed on the expiry of the statutory period and was referable to the same completed investigation. The record showed arrest and remand in November 2020, expiry of the 60-day period on 11.01.2021, and filing of the complaint on the same day. The court treated the filing as a continuation of the very same investigation file and held that the absence of an express recital that investigation was complete did not make the report incomplete or unrelated. The application for default bail was dismissed.

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Issues: Whether the applicant was entitled to default bail under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 on the ground that investigation was incomplete and the complaint/final report was not filed within the statutory period.

Analysis: The application turned on whether the complaint filed on the expiry of the 60-day period could be treated as a complaint arising from the same investigation file and whether it amounted to completion of investigation for the purpose of Section 167(2). The record showed that the applicant was arrested on 12.11.2020, remanded on 13.11.2020, and the statutory period expired on 11.01.2021. The complaint/final report was filed before the Court on the same day, 11.01.2021. The Court accepted the respondent's position that the complaint was filed in continuation of and after culmination of the very same investigation, and held that the absence of an explicit recital in the complaint did not make it incomplete or unrelated to the earlier investigation file.

Conclusion: The applicant was not entitled to default bail under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and the application was dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: When a complaint or final report is filed within the statutory period and is demonstrably referable to the same completed investigation, the right to default bail under Section 167(2) does not arise merely because the complaint does not expressly recite completion of investigation.

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