Bonthu Sudheer Kumar vs The State Of Andhra Pradesh
2022 Latest Caselaw 4766 AP

     THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI

               CRIMINAL PETITION No.5425 OF 2022

ORDER:

This Criminal Petition is filed under Sections 437 & 439 of Criminal

Procedure Code ('Cr.P.C.' in short), seeking regular bail, by the

petitioner/Accused No.218 in Crime No.140 of 2022 of Amalapuram Town

Police Station, East Godavari District, registered for the offences

punishable under Sections 341, 143, 144, 147, 148, 151, 336, 435 and

188 read with 149 of IPC, Sections 3 and 4 of Prevention of Damage to

Public Property Act, 1984 and Section 32 of the Police Act, 1861.

2. The facts of the case, in brief, are that the de facto complainant,

who is working as driver in RTC Depo, Amalapuram, gave a report stating

that on 24.05.2022, at about 11:00 A.M., he started from Vizag to

Amalapuram on Super Luxury Bus bearing No.AP-07-Z-0408 by picking

passengers and at about 5:30 P.M. when he reached along with his bus

near Red Bridge, Amalapuram, on a call given by JAC of Konaseema

Sadhana Committee for submission of objections/representation pursuant

to the notification, huge number of people gathered and while proceeding

towards Ministers house, they pelted stones on his bus and also another

bus bearing No.AP-28-Z-5312, which was stopped in front of his bus. The

persons in the mob pelted stones on both the buses and caused damage

and also lit fire to the buses and burnt after all were got down stand

aside. Hence, the above crime was registered.

3. Heard Sri Bokka Satyanarayana, learned counsel for the petitioner

and Sri Sravan Kumar Naidana, learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor

for the respondent-State.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that earlier the

petitioner filed Crl.M.P.No.226 of 2022 before the Court below and the

same was dismissed vide its order dated 04.07.2022. He further

submitted that the petitioner is languishing in jail since 22.06.2022 and

basing on a confessional statement made by the co-accused, he was

falsely implicated and he is pursuing 3rd year of B.Sc. Degree and if he is

not released, his academic year will be getting effected and also his family

will be effected and requested to consider enlarging the petitioner on bail

on any conditions that may be imposed.

5. On the other hand, the learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor

submitted that the involvement of the petitioner is evident from the

photographs taken at the scene of offence and investigation is still

pending. If at all this Court wants to consider the present bail petition, in

such case, he draw the attention of the Court to the decision of the

Hon'ble Supreme Court in Kodungallu Film Society v. Union of India1

wherein it is held as follows:

C. Liability of person causing violence

a) .......

          b)      .......

          c)      A person arrested for either committing or initiating,

promoting, instigating or in any way causing to occur any act of violence which results in loss of life or damage to property may be granted conditional bail upon depositing

(2018) 10 SCC 713 : 2018 SCC Online SC 1719

the quantified loss caused due to such violence or furnishing security for such quantified loss. ....."

Relying on the judgment cited supra, the learned Special Assistant

Public Prosecutor, prayed this Court to impose some costs for the loss

caused to the State.

6. A perusal of the complaint discloses that initially the petitioner's

name is not reflected, but on the confession statement of co-accused, the

petitioner's name is reflected in the above crime.

The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that

petitioner herein is falsely implicated in the crime due to political

differences whereas according to the prosecution, petitioner is active

participant in the rally and he executed illegal acts as per conspiracy of

their leaders.

The learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor specifically urged

that petitioner's custody is important in this case, since according to the

prosecution, he is active participant in hatching up the plan through

whatsapp group and other social media platform, which resulted in

occurrence of large-scale violence and other related executing the illegal

acts as conspired.

Further, admittedly the mob consists of more than 1000 people.

None of the complaints indicate about common intention or common

object of committing an offence punishable under Section 435 IPC.

Specific overt acts were not attributed against the petitioner.

It is also evident from the record that the mob gathered for

submitting their representations at Collectorate office, but not with an

intention of committing any offence and admittedly the mob was not

armed with weapons. Photographs filed by prosecution do not show that

mob is armed with weapons.

Till today, there is no material to show that the petitioner has

damaged any property. In view of the same, the decision relied on by the

learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor cannot be made applicable at

this stage and his request to impose costs cannot be considered.

On perusal of the material on record, considering the submissions

of the both the parties and in view of the fact that the other accused were

already granted anticipatory bail by this Court whereas the petitioner is

languishing in jail since 22.06.2022, this Court feels it appropriate to

consider granting bail to the petitioner on the following conditions:

(i) The petitioner shall be released on bail on his executing a self bond for Rs.50,000/- (Rupees fifty thousand only) with two sureties for a like sum each to the satisfaction of the learned Principal Junior Civil Judge- cum-Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Amalapuram;

(ii) The petitioner shall appear before the concerned Station House Officer, twice in a week i.e. on every Monday and Thursday between 9.00 a.m. and 12.00 noon, till filing of the charge sheet;

(iii) The petitioner shall not directly or indirectly contact the complainant or any other 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.

(iv) The petitioner shall furnish his mobile phone number and residential address as well as that of his sureties to the I.O./SHO concerned and they shall keep their mobile phones operational at all times during this period and in the event of any change of the same, they shall immediately inform the same to the I.O./S.H.O. and,

(v) The petitioner shall drop a pin location on Google Maps so that the location of the petitioner is available to the Investigation Officer.

Further, the petitioner shall scrupulously comply with the above conditions and breach of any of the above conditions will be viewed seriously and bail automatically gets cancelled without any further order of this Court.

Accordingly, the Criminal Petition is allowed.

Miscellaneous applications, pending if any, shall stand closed.

________________________ JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI Date: 01.08.2022 Ivd

THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI

CRIMINAL PETITION No.5425 OF 2022

Date : 01.08.2022

Ivd