Allahabad High Court
Sonu vs State Of U.P. And Another on 4 January, 2021
Author: Ram Krishna Gautam
Bench: Ram Krishna Gautam
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 71 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 30633 of 2020 Applicant :- Sonu Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Applicant :- Dharnidhar Pandey,Kamal Kumar Singh Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.,Atul Pandey,Bikash Kumar Mishra Hon'ble Ram Krishna Gautam,J.
Heard learned counsel for the applicant and learned counsel for informant as well as learned A.G.A. and perused the record.
By means of this application, the accused-applicant, Sonu, who is said to be involved in Case Crime No. 23 of 2020, under Sections 363, 366, 120-B, 376-D, 344 and 506 of I.P.C., read with 5/6 of POCSO Act, Police Station- Khampar, District- Deoria, is seeking enlargement on bail.
Learned counsel for accused-applicant argued that the accused-applicant is innocent; he has been falsely implicated in this very case crime number and is languishing in Jail since 22.6.2020; accused-applicant is of no criminal antecedent; there is no likelihood of fleeing from course of justice or tampering with evidence in case of release on bail; he was not named in the first information report nor was having any concern with the present occurrence; prosecutorix was major; she was held to be 18 years' of age in the medical age determination test; she has gone from her house with four named accused persons; she never raised any protest and lived with them for ten days in a room where it was said that she has been raped by those accused persons; subsequently, she was taken to Gujrat by two persons; they met three persons thereat and the applicant is said to be one of them and further accusation is that all those have committed rape with prosecutorix; they all brought her to her native district, where, Police met to her and she went to her home, i.e, at no point of time any alarm of protest was ever raised by her; it was a false implication. Hence, bail has been prayed for.
Learned counsel for informant has vehemently opposed prayer for bail with this contention that as per the Matriculation record, prosecutorix is minor and she was said to have been raped by all those five accused persons in which applicant is one of them. It is also there in the statements, recorded, under Sections 161 and 164 of Cr.P.C. No question of any consent in case of minor arises. Offence is very heinous and, therefore, Bail Application be rejected.
Learned A.G.A. also vehemently opposed the prayer for bail, but could not oppose this fact that the applicant is having no criminal antecedent.
Having heard learned counsel for both sides and gone through materials on record, it is apparent that accusation of enticing and taking away from home from lawful guardians is not against the applicant and the same is against four named accused persons. Involvement of applicant is shown to be at Gujrat, that too, when applicant, alongwith two others, met with prosecutorix and two others, who had taken her to Gujrat. Under all above facts and circumstances and considering nature of accusation, severity of punishment in case of conviction and nature of supporting evidence, reasonable apprehension of tampering with the witness and prima facie case, without expressing any opinion on merit of the case, a case for grant of bail, during trial, is made out.
Accordingly, this bail application is allowed.
Let the applicant, Sonu, involved in above mentioned case crime number be released on bail on furnishing a personal bond and two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of court concerned, subject to following conditions:
1. The applicant will not tamper with the evidence.
2. The applicant will not indulge in any criminal activity.
3. The applicant will not pressurize/intimidate the prosecution witnesses and co-operate in the trial.
4. The applicant will appear regularly on each and every date fixed by the trial court unless his personal appearance is exempted through counsel by the court concerned.
5. The party shall file computer generated copy of such order downloaded from the official website of High Court, Allahabad.
6. The computer generated copy of such order shall be self attested by counsel of the party concerned.
7. The concerned Court/ Authority/ Official shall verify the authenticity of such computerized copy of the order from the official website of High Court, Allahabad, and shall make a declaration of such verification in writing.
In the event of breach of any of the aforesaid conditions, the court below will be at liberty to proceed to cancel his bail.
Order Date :- 4.1.2021/bgs/