In Brief
A senior citizen was arrested and held in custody for nearly a year pending trial on charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and corruption relating to a vessel traffic management system project. The State opposed bail citing national security concerns and alleged witness tampering. The Supreme Court allowed the bail appeal, holding that when a fundamentally civil contractual dispute is dressed in criminal charges, and State interests are independently protected by an arbitral tribunal's interim orders, the accused is entitled to bail. With the project still operating under State supervision, the case resting on documents rather than witnesses, and nine months passed without trial commencement, indefinite detention was unjustified.
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