Andhra Pradesh High Court - Amravati
Arava Ravi Teja vs The State Of Andhra Pradesh on 29 August, 2022
THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI
CRIMINAL PETITION NO.6419 of 2022
ORDER:-
This petition is filed under Section 438 of Criminal Procedure Code (for short 'Cr.P.C.') seeking pre-arrest bail, by the petitioners/A-1 to A-5 in the event of their arrest in connection with Crime No.100 of 2022 of Narsapuram Town Police Station, Narsapuram, West Godavari District for the offences punishable under Sections 498-A, 313, 509 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Sections 3 and 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.
2. The case of the prosecution is that on 01.06.2022, the de facto complainant lodged a report with the police stating that her marriage was performed with A-1 in the year 2015 and at the time of their marriage, on the demand of all the accused, her parents gave Rs.20.00 lakhs towards dowry and 110 sovereigns gold to them. It is stated in the complaint that in the year 2017, when the complainant got conceived, the accused forcibly got her aborted and further harassed her physically and mentally by demanding additional dowry to buy a house at Bengaluru. It is further stated in the complaint that without informing her, A-1 resigned his job and living in Guntur. When she questioned the same, all the accused abused her, her parents and misbehaved with her. Hence, the present crime was registered against all the accused. 2
3. Heard Sri K.Chidambaram, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioners and Sri Soora Venkata Sainath, learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor for the respondent-State.
4. Learned Senior counsel for the petitioners, in elaboration, contended that the alleged offence took place in the year 2017 and complainant lodged a report in the year 2022. The present case is foisted by the de facto complainant against the petitioners with a malafide intention only to harass the petitioners. It is further contended that the petitioners 2 to 5 never resided together with the complainant and A-1 and they are falsely roped into this case. Hence, he prays to grant bail to the petitioners.
5. On the other hand, learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor fairly conceded that the offences punishable under Sections 498-A, 509 of IPC and Sections 3 and 4 of DP Act are punishable with imprisonment less than seven years and the petitioners are entitled to notice under Section 41-A of Cr.P.C and further submitted that there is no evidence as of now with regard to the offence punishable under Section 313 of IPC. However, he opposed the petition by contending that investigation is still pending and if the petitioners are released on bail, they may not cooperate with the investigation and they may pressurize the de facto complainant and her family, as such, it is not a fit case to grant bail to the petitioners at this stage.
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6. Perused the record. As per the submissions made by both the learned counsel and material available on record, prima facie, there is no evidence to establish the offence punishable under Section 313 of IPC against the petitioners. No doubt, the other offences are punishable with less than seven years, and further the allegations are of the year 2017 and after five years thereafter, the present crime was registered basing on the complaint given by the de facto complainant. In view of the above, this Court is inclined to grant pre-arrest bail to the petitioners, however, the apprehension of the learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor is taken care of by imposing the following conditions.
i) The petitioners shall be released on bail in case of their arrest in Crime No.100 of 2022 of Narsapuram Town Police Station, Narsapuram, West Godavari District, on their executing self bond for Rs.25,000/- each (Rupees twenty five thousand only) with two sureties for a like sum each to the satisfaction of the Station House Officer, Narsapuram Town Police Station, Narsapuram, West Godavari District.
(ii) The petitioners shall appear before the Station House Officer, Narsapuram Town Police Station, Narsapuram, West Godavari District, once in a week i.e. on every Sunday between 10.00 a.m. and 02.00 p.m. till filing of the charge sheet.
(iii) The petitioners shall not make any attempt to tamper with the prosecution evidence. They shall make themselves available to the 4 investigating officer whenever required by them to facilitate proper investigation in this case.
(iv) The petitioners shall not directly or indirectly contact any witnesses under any circumstances and any such attempt shall be construed as an attempt of influencing the witnesses and shall not tamper the evidence and shall co-operate with the investigation.
Further, the petitioners shall scrupulously comply with the above condition and if there is breach of any of the above condition, it will be viewed seriously and it also entails cancellation of the bail and in such case prosecution shall move appropriate application for such cancellation.
Consequently, miscellaneous applications pending, if any, shall stand closed.
_________________________________ JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI Date : 29.08.2022 AG 5 88 THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI CRIMINAL PETITION NO.6419 OF 2022 Date : 29.08.2022 AG