THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI
CRIMINAL PETITION No.5516 OF 2022
ORDER:
This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 438 of Criminal Procedure Code ('Cr.P.C.' in short), seeking pre-arrest bail, by the petitioners/Accused Nos. 4 to 6 in Crime No.114 of 2022 of Malkipuram Police Station, East Godavari District, registered for the offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 341, 324 and 307 read with 149 IPC.
2. The case of the prosecution, in brief, is that, when the de facto complainant was in Gulf country, he gave 10 lakhs to Siddireddy Kanka Durga/A.3 towards debt. After coming to his village, he requested the accused No.3 to repay the loan amount, but she did not reply. On 30.06.2022 at night 09.30 p.m., while he was going to his house, the accused attacked him and beat him with cricket bats over his head, face, left knee and right elbow and caused severe bleeding injuries with an intention to kill him as he asked to repay the debt amount. Hence, the above crime was registered.
3. Heard Sri G.L. Nageswar Rao, learned counsel for the petitioners and Sri Soora Venkata Sainath, learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor for the respondent-State.
4. Learned counsel for the petitioners, in elaboration to what has been stated in the grounds, contended that the initial version of the de facto complainant/injured in the hospital is that he sustained injuries on head, ear and left leg as he fell from two wheeler and the same was recorded by the hospital authorities in police intimation for OP/Admission form and the same is placed on record and draw the attention of this 2 court and further contended that subsequently, the de facto complainant/injured improvised his allegations and given compliant before the police by changing the original version stated before the doctors to that of the version given in the complaint. The counsel for the petitioners further contended that the allegations have been changed from time to time and only to implicate the petitioners in the present crime, the present compliant has been given. He further stated that the incident took place on 30.06.2022, but the compliant was given on 02.07.2022 and this itself falsifies that the entire allegations are cooked up stories only to harass the petitioners. He further submitted that this court pleased to consider pre arrest bail to accused No.3 in Crl.P.No.4985 of 2022 in the very same crime and prayed this court to grant anticipatory bail stating that the petitioner will definitely cooperate with the investigation and she will abide any conditions imposed by this court.
5. On the other hand learned Assistant Public Prosecutor opposed to grant pre-arrest bail and contended that the offences are serious in nature and the F.I.R., is not an encyclopedia to have the entire allegations and in 161 Cr.P.C. statements further information has been received and that has to be taken due note while considering the bail application and relied upon a case reported in Indresh Kumar Vs. State of Utter Pradesh1 in support of his contention. He further contended that in the event of granting pre-arrest bail to the petitioners, they may not cooperate with the investigation and may influence the witnesses and tamper the evidence and seeks for dismissal of the petition. 1 2022 Live Law SC 610 3
6. A perusal of the record shows that initially, the version of the de facto complainant/injured in the hospital is that he fell from two wheeler and sustained injuries to his head, ear and leg and further the police intimation for OP/admission form given by the doctors also shows that injured is in no loss of consciousness and no vomiting. No doubt, there is a changed version from the doctors information given to the police and in the F.I.R., and further in 161 Cr.P.C statement, which is improvised version of the injured when comparing to these two statements. There is no doubt that the 161 Cr.P.C. statements has to be looked into prima facie while considering bail application and the judgment relied upon by the learned Assistant Special Public Prosecutor is settled principle of law. In the present case, there is some force in the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners about change of version from time to time.
7. Taking the facts and circumstances of the case into consideration and for the reasons stated above and as Accused No.3 was already granted pre-arrest bail, this court is inclined to grant pre arrest bail to the petitioners by duly taking the apprehensions made by the learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor into consideration with the following conditions:
(i) The petitioners/Accused Nos.4 to 6 shall be released on bail in case of their arrest in Crime No.114 of 2022 of Malkipuram Police Station, East Godavari District on their executing a self bond for Rs.50,000/- (Rupees fifty thousand only) each with two sureties for a like sum each to the satisfaction of the Station House Officer, Malkipuram Police Station, East Godavari District; and 4
(ii) On release, the petitioners shall appear before the Station House Officer, Malkipuram Police Station, East Godavari District, once in a week i.e., on every Sunday between 10.00 a.m., and 12.00 noon; and
(iii) The petitioners shall cooperate with investigation and trial and shall appear before the investigating officer, as and when their presence is required and they shall not influence the witnesses or tamper with evidence.
Further, the petitioners shall scrupulously comply with the above conditions and in case of infraction of the same, the prosecution is at liberty to move appropriate application for cancellation of bail.
Accordingly, the Criminal Petition is allowed.
Miscellaneous applications, pending if any, shall stand closed.
________________________ JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI 12th August, 2022 Rmn 5 THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI ALLOWED CRIMINAL PETITION No.5516 OF 2022 Date: 12.08.2022 U Rmn