STATE THROUGH CBI vs MOHD. ASHRAFT BHAT & ORTS

The Supreme Court held that the Designated Court erred in granting bail under Section 167 Cr.P.C. after the filing of the police report, as the right to bail is enforceable only before the challan is filed, as established in Sanjay Dutt v. State (1994) 5 SCC 410. The Court clarified that once the challan is filed, bail must be considered based on the merits of the case, not merely on the expiration of the one-year period. Additionally, the Court ruled that the computation of the one-year period should start from the date of the arrest in the relevant FIR, not from an earlier unrelated arrest, referencing Central Bureau of Investigation v. Anupam J. Kulkarni (1994) 5 SCC 141.