Bandaru Bhima Sekhar A190 vs The State Of Andhra Pradesh
2022 Latest Caselaw 4872 AP

         THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI

  CRIMINAL PETITION Nos. 5558, 5557, 5555 & 5556 OF 2022


COMMON ORDER:

      These Criminal Petitions are filed under Sections 437 & 439 of

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

petitioners/Accused in the following crimes. The petitioners in all these

Criminal Petitions are one and the same and are accused in all the

following crimes. Hence, all these Criminal Petitions are heard together

and are considered under a common order.

      Crime No.138 of 2022 of Amalapuram Town Police Station, East

Godavari District, registered for the offences punishable under Sections

307, 143, 144, 147, 148, 151, 152, 332, 336, 427, 188 and 353 read with

149 of IPC, Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public

Property Act, 1984 and Section 32 of the Police Act, 1861 against the

petitioners, who are accused No.190 and 185 in the said crime.

      Crime No.139 of 2022 of Amalapuram Town Police Station, East

Godavari District, registered for the offences punishable under Sections

307, 143, 144, 147, 148, 151, 152, 332, 336, 427, 188, 353, 324, 435

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 against the

petitioners, who are accused No.190 and 185 in the said crime.


      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, 188 read with 149 of IPC,

Sections 3 and 4 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984
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and Section 32 of the Police Act, 1861 against the petitioners, who are

accused No.190 and 185 in the said crime.


       Crime No.141 of 2022 of Amalapuram Town Police Station, East

Godavari District, registered for the offences punishable under Sections

307, 143, 144, 147, 148, 452, 436, 435 and 188 read with 149 of IPC and

Section 32 of the Police Act, 1861 against the petitioners, who are

accused No.190 and 185 in the said crime.


2.     The facts of the case, in brief, are that on 24.05.2022 at about 4.00

p.m., on a call given by JAC of Konaseema Sadhana Committee, huge

number of people gathered for submitting objections pursuant to issuance

of Gazette notification with regard to change of name of Konaseema

District, by violating the order under Section 144 of Cr.P.C. and Section 30

of the Police Act. The mob started rally at Kalasam Centre, Amalapuram

Town and proceeded to Clock Tower Centre and in the meanwhile various

groups of public came from four corners to the clock tower centre and

formed into a huge mob.

       Thereafter the mob moved to Collectorate and on the way to

Collectorate, when Police were discharging their duties, the mob pelted

stones on the Police and also burnt BVC college bus which was used as

transport vehicle for Police.

       Further, when the Police tried to control the mob at Collectorate,

the mob pelted stones on Police personnel due to which some of the

Police sustained injuries and glasses of Collectorate Office and Ambedkar

Bhavan were damaged.

       Thereafter, the mob proceeded to Red Bridge (Erra Vanthenna),

intercepted two RTC buses, damaged them and set fire to the buses.
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      The mob further moved towards the house of Hon'ble Minister.

When the mob shouted and beat police persons, AR constable fired

rounds in air, but agitators attacked police personnel and staff of the

Hon'ble Minister, caused damage to the furniture and set fire to the house

of the Minister and later proceeded to the house of local MLA.


      Basing on the complaints given by different persons, the above

crimes were registered.


3.    Heard Sri Prudhvi Raj Komara, 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 submitted that initially

petitioners' names were not figured in the above crimes. Basing on the

confession statements of the other accused, their names were arrayed in

all the above crimes as accused No.190 and 185 respectively. It was

further conteded that basing on the confession statement, the petitioners

were arrayed as accused. It is further contended that the petitioners are

languishing in jail since 08.06.2022. In fact, the petitioners were arrested

in Crime No.139 of 2022 and later they were produced in other crimes on

P.T. Warrant.

It is also contended that some of the accused in the crimes

registered in connection with the same incident, were granted pre-arrest

bail and sought to consider the present petitions also on similar lines and

requested to consider enlarging the petitioners on regular bail on any

conditions that may be imposed.

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

submitted that involvement of the petitioners is evident from the CC TV

footages, social media videos and photographs taken at the scene of

offence. It is also submitted that investigation is still pending. The

learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor, while drawing attention of this

Court to the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Kodungallu Film

Society v. Union of India1, contended that if at all this Court wants to

consider granting bail to the petitioners, costs for damaging public

property may be imposed on them as per the decision of the Hon'ble

Supreme Court. The relevant portion of the said decision reads as under:

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

6. A perusal of the complaint discloses that initially the petitioners'

names are not reflected in the said crimes, but on the confession

statement of the other accused, the petitioners' were implicated.

With regard to the contention of the learned Special Assistant

Public Prosecutor, relying on the judgment cited supra, till today, there is

no material to show that the petitioners have 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.

7. Taking the facts and circumstances of the case into consideration

and considering the submissions of the learned Counsel for the petitioners

that in similar matters, this Court has granted bail, this Court feels it

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

appropriate to consider granting bail to the petitioners herein on the

following conditions, by duly taking the apprehension raised by the Special

Assistant Public Prosecutor into consideration:

(i) The petitioners shall be released on bail on their executing self bond for Rs.50,000/- (Rupees fifty thousand only) each with two sureties each for a like sum each to the satisfaction of the Additional Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Amalapuram, East Godavari District, in each crime;

(ii) On release, the petitioners shall appear before the Station House Officer, Amalapuram Town Police Station, East Godavari District, 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; and

(iii) The petitioners 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.

Further, the petitioners 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 Petitions are allowed. Miscellaneous applications, pending if any, shall stand closed.

________________________ JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI 02nd August, 2022 GBS