Rachakonda Sivakumar Siva vs The State Of Andhra Pradesh
2022 Latest Caselaw 5035 AP

       THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE SUBBA REDDY SATTI

                CRIMINAL PETITION No.5727 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

petitioners/Accused in 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.

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, damaged the glasses of Collectorate Office and

Ambedkar Bhavan.

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 complainant and his staff; attacked

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 complaint lodged by the Home Guard Crime No.138

of 2022 was registered.

3. Heard Sri T.V. Jaggi Reddy, 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 raised in the grounds, contended that initially the petitioners' names

were not figured in the complaint. Basing on the confession statements of

one of the arrested accused, their names were arrayed as accused in the

above crime. Subsequently, they were also arrayed as accused in the

other crimes registered in connection with the same incident and their

arrest was shown on PT warrant.

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

and other crimes registered in connection with the same incident were

granted regular as well as anticipatory bails and sought to consider the

present petition 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

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 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 petitioners'

names are not reflected, but as per the confession statements of the

other accused, the petitioners' names are reflected in the above crime.

The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners that

petitioners herein are falsely implicated in these crimes due to political

differences whereas according to the prosecution, petitioners are active

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

participants in the rally and they executed illegal acts as per conspiracy of

their leaders.

The learned Public Prosecutor specifically urged that petitioners'

custody is important in this case, since according to the prosecution, they

are active participants in hatching up the plan through whatsapp group

and other social media platform, which resulted in occurrence of large-

scale violence and execution of other related 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 307 IPC.

Specific overt acts were not attributed against the petitioners.

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 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.

On perusal of the material on record, considering the submissions

of the both the counsel and in view of the fact that the other accused

were already granted regular/anticipatory bail by this Court whereas the

petitioners are languishing in jail, this Court feels it appropriate to

consider granting bail to the petitioners on the following conditions:

(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 learned Principal Junior Civil Judge-cum-Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Amalapuram, for each crime;

(ii) The petitioners shall appear before the Station House Officer, Amalapuram Town Police Station 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 SUBBA REDDY SATTI

05th August, 2022 GBS