Allahabad High Court
Vijay Kumar Samson And 6 Others vs State Of U.P. And Another on 30 November, 2022
Author: Krishan Pahal
Bench: Krishan Pahal
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 78 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC ANTICIPATORY BAIL APPLICATION U/S 438 CR.P.C. No. - 11450 of 2022 Applicant :- Vijay Kumar Samson And 6 Others Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Applicant :- Rajiv Lochan Shukla,Kumar Vikrant Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A. Hon'ble Krishan Pahal,J.
Heard Sri Rajiv Lochan Shukla, learned counsel for the applicants and Sri Vibhav Anand Singh, learned A.G.A. for the State as well as perused the record.
The present anticipatory bail application has been filed on behalf of the applicants in F.I.R./Case Crime No. 0224 of 2022, under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 IPC and Sections 3 & 5(1) of U.P. Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, Police Station Kotwali, District Fatehpur, with a prayer to enlarge them on anticipatory bail.
As per prosecution story, the applicants and other co-accused persons are stated to have formed an unlawful assembly and tried to illegally convert various vulnerable persons of the society to Christianity on 14.4.2022 within the premises of Evangelical Church of India situated at Hariharganj, Fatehpur.
Learned counsel for the applicants has stated that the applicants have been falsely implicated in the present case due to ulterior motive. They had actually congregated to attend the special prayer of Maundy Thursday which is a ritual performed across the world at their respective churches. The said day falls one day before the Good Friday. Learned counsel has also stated that the applicants have nothing to do with the said offence of converting any person to other religion whatsoever. There is nothing on record to suggest that any person has been converted in the said congregation. Learned counsel has also stated that the FIR has been lodged u/s 153-A, 506, 420, 467, 468 IPC and Sections 3 & 5(1) of U.P. Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 but the remand u/s 153-A, 506 IPC only was allowed by the concerned Magistrate and the applicant nos.1, 2 & 5 were enlarged on bail in the said sections.
Learned counsel for the applicants has stated that the applicant nos. (1) Vijay Kumar Samson, (3) Vipin Kumar Samson and (5) Samuel David Samson are entitled for anticipatory bail in view of the settled law of the Apex Court passed in Bhadresh Bipinbhai Sheth vs. State of Gujarat & Another reported in 2016 (1) SCC (Cri) 240 and Manoj Suresh Jadhav & Ors. vs. The State of Maharashtra, reported in 2018 SCC OnLine SC 3428, wherein the applicant therein was enlarged on anticipatory bail in the added sections U/S 438 Cr.P.C. after being enlarged on regular bail U/S 439 Cr.P.C. Learned Counsel has also placed reliance on the judgment of this Court passed in Criminal Misc. Anticipatory Bail Application U/S 438 Cr.P.C. No.9742 of 2021, wherein the accused was enlarged on anticipatory bail after being granted regular bail.
Learned counsel has further stated that later on as an improvement, some witnesses, namely, Rajesh Kumar Trivedi, Sanjay Singh and Pramod Dixit have filed their applications on 24.5.2022 i.e. about more than after a month of the alleged incident stating that they were being lured to get converted to Christianity. The said statements have been added at a belated stage and it has been more often than not seen that the persons of the marginalized sections of the society are stated to have been lured for converting into other religion but the said persons belong to the higher echelons to the society and they do not belong to the weaker sections of the society. Learned counsel has further stated that the applicants have no criminal history and have nothing to do with the said offence. The said congregation was a religious congregation and was not meant for conversion. Had it been so the remand Magistrate would not have refused to take remand of the arrested three persons under the said sections. Several other submissions have been made on behalf of the applicants to demonstrate the falsity of the allegations made against them. The circumstances which, as per counsel, led to the false implication of the applicants have also been touched upon at length. In case, the anticipatory bail application of the applicants is allowed, they will not misuse the liberty and shall cooperate with trial.
On the other hand, learned A.G.A. has vehemently opposed the prayer for grant of anticipatory bail on the ground that there are five witnesses, who were stated to have been lured to convert to Christianity. Learned AGA has also placed reliance upon Sections 8 & 9 of the U.P. Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 which states that a declaration is to be made before conversion of his religion and a report has to be sent by the person who purports to be converted into another religion. Post conversion, he has to send a declaration to the District Magistrate of the concerned district. Learned AGA has also stated that in the present case, Sections 8 & 9 have not been followed.
Learned counsel for the applicants has stated that there is no question of following the said sections 8 & 9 of the Act as no conversion was being undertaken there and the said witnesses have been created later on.
On due consideration to the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the parties and in view of the law laid down by the Apex Court in the case of "Sushila Aggarwal Vs. State (NCT of Delhi)-2020 SCC online SC 98", the applicants are entitled to be granted anticipatory bail in this case.
Without expressing any opinion upon ultimate merits of the case either ways which may adversely affect the trial of the case, the anticipatory bail application of the applicants is allowed.
In the event of arrest of the applicants, Vijay Kumar Samson, Beatrice Samson, Vipin Kumar Samson, Reshma Samson, Samuel David Samson, Roma Shalini Newton and Ruth Shalini Samson, involved in the aforesaid case crime number, shall be released on anticipatory bail on furnishing a personal bond with two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the Presiding Officer/Court Concerned, with the conditions that:-
1. that the applicants shall make themselves available for interrogation by a police officer as and when required;
2. that the applicants shall not, directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the court or to any police officer or tamper with the evidence;
3. that the applicants shall not leave India without previous permission of the court;
4. that the applicants shall not tamper with the evidence during the trial;
5. that the applicants shall not pressurize/ intimidate the prosecution witness;
6. that the applicants shall appear before the trial court on each date fixed unless personal presence are exempted;
In case of breach of any of the above conditions, the court below shall have the liberty to cancel the bail granted to the applicants.
It is made clear that observations made in granting anticipatory bail to the applicants shall not in any way affect the learned trial Judge in forming his independent opinion based on the testimony of the witnesses.
Order Date :- 30.11.2022 Siddhant