IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU DATED THIS THE 26TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2019 BEFORE THE HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE B.A. PATIL CRIMINAL PETITION NO.27/2019 BETWEEN:
1. Smt. Lakshmidevamma W/o Mallesha, Aged about 35 years, 2. Smt. Narasamma W/o Gangappa, Aged about 60 years, Both are Agricultural Coolies and Residing at Avalaiahnapalya Village, Holavanahalli Hobli, Koratagere Taluk, Tumakuru District-572 129. ...Petitioners (By Sri.N. Srinivas & Associates, Advocate) AND:
State of Karnataka by SPP High Court of Karnataka, Bengaluru-560 001, by Koratagere Police Station, Koratagere-572 129. ...Respondent (By Smt. Namitha Mahesh.B.G, HCGP) This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 439 of Cr.P.C praying to enlarge the petitioner on bail in Crime No209/2018 of Koratagere Police Station, Tumakuru for the offence P/U/S 149, 302 of IPC.
This Criminal Petition coming on for Orders, this day, the Court made the following:
O R D E R The present petition has been filed by the accused-petitioner Nos.4 and 5 under section 439 of Cr.P.C to release them on bail in crime No.209/2018 of Koratagere Police Station, Tumakuru for the offence punishable under Section 302 read with section 149 of IPC.
2. I have heard the learned counsel for petitioner and the learned High Court Government Pleader for respondent-State.
3. The gist of the complaint is that the complainant and his wife Bhagyamma were working as coolies in the garden land belonging to Deepak Kanekal of Avalaiahnapalya Village, Holavanahalli Hobli, Koratagere Taluk, Tumakuru District. On 02.12.2018 at about 10.00 a.m. complainant and his deceased wife Bhagyamma were attending to their harvest work in the said field, at that time accused Nos.1 to 5 by constituting unlawful assembly went near the said land and questioned the complainant’s wife Bhagyamma as to how her daughter had fallen in love with some boy and she has left her house on 26.11.2018? It is further stated that he knows the fact that his daughter used to call him using the phone of deceased Bhagyamma. In the said act, accused No.1 demanded the wife of the complainant to disclose the name of boy and details to whom the daughter of the deceased used to call. The relatives of the complainant were also attending to their work in the neighboring field and immediately went to the place of incident, at this juncture the accused- petitioners have abused the complainant’s wife Bhagyamma in filthy language and threatened her with dire consequences. In the meanwhile, accused No.2 with an intention to do away with the life of the deceased Bhagyamma, kicked her on her chest and stomach three to four times and some person pacified and the said Bhagyamma fell down sustaining bleeding injuries from her private parts and she was shifted for medical treatment by an auto rikshaw to the Government Hospital, Koratagere. Pursuant to the advise of the doctor, she was shifted to Tumakuru District and Hospital, while on the way, she died.
4. It is the submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner that there are no overt acts as per the contents of the complaint, The allegation which has been made against accused-petitioner Nos.4 and 5 is that they have instigated accused No.2 and they were not present at the place of incident and abused the deceased Bhagyamma. He further submitted that accused No.2 has already been released on bail. On the ground of parity, the accused-petitioner Nos.4 and 5 are also entitled to be released on bail. He further submitted that the petitioners are ladies and there are no specific overt acts and the petitioners had no motive or intention for committing any act against the deceased Bhagyamma. The petitioners-accused Nos.4 and 5 are ready to abide by any of the terms and conditions that may be imposed by this Court and also ready to offer surety, if they are released on bail. On these grounds, he prayed to allow the petition and to release the petitioners-accused Nos.4 and 5 on bail.
5. Per Contra, learned High Court Government Pleader vehemently argued and submitted that petitioners-accused Nos.4 and 5 were present at the place of incident and by constituting unlawful assembly, came to the place where the deceased was residing and instigated accused No.2 to commit the offence as a result of the same, accused No.2 has kicked and caused the injuries and ultimately Bhagyamma died on the way to the hospital. There are eye witnesses to the alleged offence. She further submitted that the alleged offence is punishable with death or imprisonment for life. On these grounds, she prayed to dismiss the petition.
6. I have carefully gone through the submission made by the learned counsel appearing for the parties and perused the records.
7. On clean reading of the contents of the complaint discloses that the only allegation against the petitioners-accused No.4 and 5 is that they were also present at the place of incident and instigated accused No.2 to commit offence but as could be seen from the records already accused No.2 has been released on bail. On the ground of parity, the petitioners-accused Nos.4 and 5 are also entitled to be released on bail. There are no specific overt acts against petitioners-accused Nos.4 and 5.
8. In the facts and circumstances, I feel that if the petitioners-accused Nos.4 and 5 are released on bail by imposing some stringent conditions then, it is going to meet the ends of justice.
9. In that light, the petition is allowed and petitioners-accused Nos.4 and 5 are ordered to be released on bail in crime No.209/2018 of Koratagere Police Station, Tumakuru for the offence punishable under Section 302 read with section 149 of IPC, subject to following conditions:
1. Each of the Petitioner/accused Nos.4 and 5 shall execute a personal bond for a sum of Rs.2,00,000/-(Rupees Two lakhs only) with two sureties for the likesum to the satisfaction of the trial Court.
2. They shall not tamper with the prosecution evidence directly or indirectly.
3. They shall not indulge in similar type of criminal activities till the completion of the trial.
4. They shall be regular in attending the trial as and when required.
5. They shall not leave the jurisdiction of the Court without prior permission.
6. They shall mark their attendance before the jurisdictional police once in a 15 days between 10.00a.m. and 5.00p.m. till charge sheet is filed.
Sd/- JUDGE HA/-