IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU DATED THIS THE 27TH DAY OF OCTOBER 2017 BEFORE THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE BUDIHAL R.B.
CRIMINAL PETITION No.7422/2017 C/W CRIMINAL PETITION NO.8068/2017 AND CRIMINAL PETITION NO.8083/2017 IN CRIMINAL PETITION NO.7422/2017 BETWEEN:
P Thejaswaroop S/o P Gopala Naidu Aged 29 years R/at Nayanampalli Vavilathota Post Puthalapattu Mandal Chittur District Andhra Pradesh-517 127. .. PETITIONER (By Sri Shivashankar S K, Adv.) AND:
State by High Grounds Police Station Bengaluru Represented by the State Public Prosecutor High Court of Karnataka Bangalore-560 001. .. RESPONDENT (By Sri Chetan Desai, HCGP) This criminal petition is filed under Section under Section 438 of Cr.P.C. praying to enlarge the petitioner on bail in the event of his arrest in Cr.No.146/2017 of High Grounds P.S., Bangalore for the offence punishable under Section 307 read with Section 34 of IPC.
IN CRIMINAL PETITION NO.8068/2017 BETWEEN:
1. Abdul Razaq @ Basha S/o Ahmed Basha Aged about 21 years R/at No.15, 4th Cross Timber Lane, Gurappanapalya Bengaluru-560 029.
2. Abdul Jaleel S/o Mohammed Rafiq Aged about 21 years R/at No.3/33, 8th Cross 8th ‘A’ Main Road New Gurappanapalya Bengaluru-560 029.
3. Mohammed Shameer @ Baba S/o Late Hyder Ali Aged about 25 years R/at Mothersha Layout New Gurappanapalya Bengaluru-560 029. ..PETITIONERS (By Sri Rajesh Rai K, Adv.) AND:
State of Karnataka by High Grounds Police Station Bengaluru-560 001.
Represented by Government Pleader High Court of Karnataka Bangalore-560 001. .. RESPONDENT (By Sri Chetan Desai, HCGP) This criminal petition is filed under Section under Section 439 of Cr.P.C. praying to enlarge the petitioner on bail in Cr.No.146/2017 of High Grounds P.S., Bangalore for the offences punishable under Sections 307, 120B, 109, 323, 324, 148 read with Section 149 of IPC.
IN CRIMINAL PETITION NO.8083/2017 BETWEEN:
Sayed Zafru S/o Late Sayed Nazeer Aged about 39 years R/at No.22, 4th Cross Guruppanapalya Bangalore-560 029.
Also at No.330, B-Block Subhashnagar Bangalore South Begur Bangalore-560 068. ..PETITIONER (By Sri Rajesh Rai K, Adv.) AND:
State by High Grounds Police Station Represented by State Public Prosecutor High Court Building High Court Bangalore-560 001. .. RESPONDENT (By Sri Chetan Desai, HCGP) This criminal petition is filed under Section under Section 439 of Cr.P.C. praying to enlarge the petitioner on bail in Cr.No.146/2017 of High Grounds P.S., Bangalore for the offences punishable under Sections 307, 120B, 109, 323, 324, 148 read with Section 149 of IPC.
These petitions coming on for Orders this day, the Court made the following :
ORDER Since all the above petitions are in respect of the same crime number and the common facts are involved in all the petitions, they are taken together to dispose of the same by this common order in order to avoid repetition of discussion regarding the factual as well as the legal aspects.
2. Crl.P. No.7422/2017 is filed by accused No.1 under Section 438 of Cr.P.C. seeking anticipatory bail for the offences punishable under Section 307 read with Section 34 of IPC registered in respondent police crime No.146/2017.
Crl.P. No.8083/2017 is filed by accused No.5 and Crl. P. No.8068/2017 is filed by accused Nos.6 to 8. Both the petitions are filed under Section 439 of Cr.P.C.
seeking their release on bail of the offences punishable under Sections 307, 120B, 109, 323, 324, 148 read with Section 149 of IPC registered in respondent police crime No.146/2017.
3. Brief facts of the prosecution case are that the complainant-Satish P. is working as a software Developer in Infosys Software Company at Electronic City and he is the permanent resident of Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. On 18.08.2017, the complainant in order go to his native place, Chittoor, he started from his house at about 8.00 PM and reached to SRS Travels Office at Race Course Road at about 9.45 PM through a Mini bus. Immediately when he got down from the bus, three unknown persons aged about 20 to 25 years asked the complainant to remove the vehicle, when the complainant informed them that he don’t have any vehicle, all of them dragged the complainant forcibly from SRS Travels to Volvo Car Showroom and all of a sudden, they stabbed the complainant to his left thigh, on the left side of the chest, right side of the stomach and lower abdomen and on the right leg thigh. Apart from that, they also hit the complainant on his head in a tile piece. On the basis of the said complaint, the case was initially registered against the unknown persons and during the course of the investigation and in the further statement of the complainant, the petitioners were arrayed as the accused persons.
4. I have heard the learned Counsel appearing for the petitioners-accused Nos.1, 5 so also accused Nos.6, 7 and 8 and the learned High Court Government Pleader appearing for the respondent-State.
5. Learned Counsel for the petitioner-accused No.1 made submission that so far as petitioner-accused No.1 is concerned, prosecution material goes to show that accused No.1 has not done any overt act on the injured. Hence, there is no prima face case as against the petitioner accused No.1. Investigation of the case is completed and the charge sheet has been filed. By imposing reasonable conditions, the petitioner-accused No.1 may be admitted to anticipatory bail.
In respect of the other two petitions filed by accused i.e., accused Nos.5 to 8 is concerned, learned Counsel for the petitioners in respect of the said petitions submitted that there is no overt act by the said petitioners-accused. The learned Counsel submitted that false allegations are made against the said petitioners and they were not involved in the case. The injured has been discharged from the hospital. Investigation of the case is completed and the charge sheet has been filed. By imposing reasonable conditions, the petitioners-accused Nos.5 to 8 may be admitted to bail From the date of arrest, the petitioners- accused Nos.5 to 8 are in custody. Hence by imposing reasonable conditions, the petitioner-accused Nos.5 to 8 may be admitted to regular bail.
6. Per contra, learned HCGP appearing for the respondent-State submitted that in so far as the petitioner-accused No.1 is concerned, he is the main person behind the incident and it was he, who instigated the other accused persons for committing the alleged offences. Learned HCGP submitted that accused No.1 was running IAS coaching classes and in connection with one lady, he was having sexual advances and in that connection, he was having rivalry with accused No.1. Hence, accused No.1 instigated the other accused persons-petitioners herein to assault the complainant. Accordingly, the petitioners-accused Nos.5 to 8 assaulted the complainant. The petitioner-accused No.1 remained absconded through out investigation till filing of charge sheet. Hence, the petitioners-accused are not entitled for bail.
7. I have perused the averments made in the bail petition, FIR, complaint and the other materials on record.
8. Looking to the complaint averments, it is no doubt true the case came to be registered initially against the unknown persons. But after recording further statement of the complainant so also during investigation, the accused persons have been arrayed and accused Nos. 5 to 8 were arrested and they are in custody. So far as the petitioner accused No.1 is concerned, looking to the averments in the complaint, the complainant has stated about accused No.1 and he also making sexual advances with a lady at the time when he was running IAS coaching class. Looking to the further statement of the complainant, there are specific allegations against petitioner-accused No.1. Though accused No.1 not participated in the overt act, but he instigated the other accused persons. Therefore, it prima facie goes to show that petitioner accused No.1 is the main accused for the said incident. Apart from that, the most important material in appreciating the petition of accused No.1 is that till completion of investigation, he was not available to the police for the purpose of interrogation and investigation.
9. With regard to the petitioners in other two connected cases i.e., accused Nos.5 to 8 are concerned, looking to the prosecution material, so far as accused No.5 is concerned, there is no allegation of any assault on the complainant by him. The material goes to show that accused No.4 is the person who alleged to have assaulted the complainant-injured with knife. But the allegations so far as accused Nos.6 to 8 are concerned, they also assaulted the complainant-injured with tile pieces. It is contended by accused Nos.5 to 8 that they are in custody from the date of arrest. Investigation is completed and charge sheet is filed. The petitioners-accused Nos.5 to 8 have undertaken that they are ready to abide by any condition that may be imposed by this Court. The alleged offences are not exclusively punishable with death or imprisonment for life.
10. Hence, in view of the above discussion, I pass the following order:
(a) Crl.P. No.7422/2017 filed by petitioner-accused No.1 is hereby rejected.
(b) Crl.P. No.8083/2017 filed by accused No.5 and Crl. P. No.8068/2017 filed by accused Nos.6 to 8 are allowed and Petitioners-accused No.5 to 8 are ordered to be released on bail of the offences punishable under Sections 307, 120B, 109, 323, 324, 148 read with Section 149 of IPC registered in respondent police crime No.146/2017, subject to the following conditions:
i. Each petitioners shall execute a personal bond for the sum of Rs.50,000/- and furnish one solvent surety for the likesum to the satisfaction of the concerned Court.
ii. Petitioners shall not tamper with any of the prosecution witnesses, directly or indirectly.
iii. Petitioners shall appear before the concerned Court regularly.
Sd/- JUDGE Cs/-