Vithanala Prabhakar Biryani ... vs The State Of A.P,
2022 Latest Caselaw 5000 AP

          THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI

          CRIMINAL PETITION Nos.5676 & 5790 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 Nos.56 & 122 and Accused No.223, respectively in

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. Hence, they

are heard together and are considered under a common order.


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
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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.

      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 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 submitted that initially

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

confession statements of the other accused and/or basing on the

electronic evidence their names were arrayed in the above crimes and

were arrested on 27.05.2022, 31.05.2022 and 11.06.2022, respectively.

It is also contended that some of the accused in this crime and the

other crimes registered in connection with the same incident, were

granted pre-arrest/regular bail and sought to consider the present

petitions also on similar lines, 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

confession statements of the other accused, 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 basis of the

confession statements of the other accused and/or on the basis of the

electronic evidence, 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.

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

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

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 04th August, 2022 GBS