HC refuses bail to two for killing merchant navy captain

Two men, undergoing life sentence for murdering a merchant navy captain in 2004 on board a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, have been refused bail by the Delhi High Court which said the offence is "serious".
A bench of justices Kailash Gambhir and Indermeet Kaur has taken into consideration the "seriousness of the offence" and the manner in which the crime was committed and refused to suspend their punishment by granting them bail till their appeals were disposed of in the high court.
Vivek Madhok and Shankar Bhatia were held guilty by the trial court of killing captain Rajan Aggarwal in his cabin of MV Crimson Galaxy off Brazil, wrapped his body in a bed cover and threw it into the sea on April 4, 2004.

Both Madhok and Bhatia, who hail from Delhi, were cadets and undergoing training.
In a recent order, the court said "keeping in view the seriousness of the offence, manner in which the crime is said to have been committed and the evidence collected by the prosecution...And also taking into consideration the peculiarities of the facts of the case where the murderer was only amongst the 20 members on the board of the ship..."
"We are of the view that no case has been made out by the counsel for the appellants (convicts) for suspension of sentence and for grant of bail. The applications moved by the appellants deserve to be dismissed..."

The court accepted the submissions made by Special Public Prosecutor Pramod Dubey for Delhi police that the convicts had destroyed the evidence and also taken false defence in the trial court which the high court should take note of.
On September 16, the trial court had convicted them for murder, common intention and destruction of evidence.
Aggrieved by the trial court verdict, both had approached the high court by filing the appeals and sought suspension of sentence.