IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU DATED THIS THE 29TH DAY OF AUGUST, 2019 BEFORE THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K.N.PHANEENDRA CRIMINAL PETITION NO. 5153/2019 BETWEEN:
Maregowda @ Maegowda VS, S/o Ahivaramaiah, Aged about 30 years, Residing at No.215, Venkataramana Palya, Kunigal Tq., Tumkur – 572 126. … Petitioner (By Sri Jagadeesha B.N., Advocate) AND:
The State by Vijayanagar P.S., Represented by the State Public Prosecutor, High Court of Karnataka, Bangalore – 560 001. … Respondent (By Sri K.P. Yoganna, HCGP) This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 438 of Cr.P.C., praying to enlarge the petitioner on bail in the event of his arrest in Cr. No.185/2019 of Vijaynagara Police Station, Bengaluru City for the offences p/u/s 379, 471, 420, 468, 465, 474, 114 r/w 34 of IPC.
This Criminal Petition coming on for Orders this day, the Court made the following:
ORDER Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned High Court Government Pleader for the State. Perused the records.
2. The petitioner is arraigned as accused No.3.
Learned counsel for the petitioner brought to the notice of this Court that, accused Nos. 1 and 2 who stand on the same footing are already released on bail by the learned Magistrate under Section 437 of Cr.P.C.
3. The brief allegations are that the complainant – Mohammad Shareef Rawuthar has received a credible information that two persons were standing near Radha Krishna Kalyana Mantapa near Veeresh Theatre in Vijayanagar along with 15 to 20 persons for the purpose of disclosing the question paper pertaining to KPSC Examination proposed to be held on 09.06.2019. On 09.06.2019, i.e., on the same of receipt of credible information, in the morning at about 5.45 a.m., the police went to that particular place and came to know that the accused persons were indulging in leaking out the question paper pertaining to KPSC examination. On seeing the police, some 5 to 6 persons ran away from the spot and one person was enquired by the police and he also did not give any full information. They noticed that there were two tempo travelers near the said place and they went there and they ascertained that some persons by name Srinivas, Siddaraju, Alaswamy, Anilkumar, Santhosh were there and also other persons by name Sanjay, Harish, Jayanth, Prashanth, Gurukiran and Chetan were there. The accused persons have told them that they would give question paper of KPSC Examination. Therefore, they have taken those hand written question papers for the purpose of writing the examination on the same day. On these allegations, the police have arrested two persons and produced them before the jurisdictional Magistrate and as already noted, accused Nos. 1 and 2 have been released on bail. The petitioner is the one who is arraigned as accused No.3.
4. Though the complaint was registered on 09.06.2019, till today no material is placed on record before the Court by the learned High Court Government Pleader to show that whether the Investigating Officer has compared the documents seized from the custody of those victims with the question papers issued by the KPSC on the same day because the examination was conducted on the same day in order to ascertain whether actually those questions were already leaked prior to the examination itself.
5. Looking into the above said circumstances, though more than 2½ months have been elapsed information has not been furnished to the Court, even at the time of arguments. Under the above said circumstances, it appears that on the basis of voluntary statement of accused Nos. 1 and 2, petitioner is also implicated in the crime. The entire allegations have to be proved during the course of full-dressed trial. Under the above said circumstances, as the entire case revolves around documentary evidence custodial investigation may not be necessary. However, by imposing stringent condition that the petitioner shall appear before the Investigating Officer once in a week and as and when called for, the petitioner is entitled to be enlarged on bail.
6. Hence, the following:
ORDER The petition is allowed. Consequently, the petitioner shall be released on bail in the event of his arrest in connection with Crime No.0185/2019 of Vijayanagara Police Station, subject to the following conditions:-
i) The petitioner shall surrender himself before the Investigating Officer within Ten days from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order and shall execute personal bond for a sum of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees one lakh only) with two sureties for the like-sum to the satisfaction of the concerned Investigating Officer.
ii) The petitioner shall not indulge in hampering the investigation or tampering the prosecution witnesses.
iii) The petitioner shall co-operate with the Investigating Officer to complete the investigation, and he shall appear before the Investigating Officer as and when called for.
iv) The petitioner shall not leave the jurisdiction of the Investigating Officer without prior permission, till the charge sheet is filed or for a period of three months whichever is earlier.
v) The petitioner shall mark his attendance once in a week i.e., on every Sunday between 10.00 am and 5.00 pm., before the Investigating Officer for a period of two months or till the charge sheet is filed, whichever is earlier.
Sd/- JUDGE VP