Kanipudi Ramesh, vs The State Of Andhra Pradesh
2022 Latest Caselaw 5136 AP

     THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI

            CRIMINAL PETITION No.5834 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 in Crime No.127 of 2022 of Amalapuram

Taluq Police Station, East Godavari District, registered for the

offences punishable under Sections 143, 144, 147, 148, 452,

151, 436, 307, read with 149 IPC, Section 32 of Police Act, 1861

and Section 3(2)(v), 3(2)(va) of S.C.&S.T.(Prevention of

Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015.

2. The facts of the case, in brief, is that on 24.05.2022 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 given by the watchman working at

the house of Sri Pinipe Viswaroop, Transport Minister of Andhra

Pradesh, the case in Cr.No.127 of 2022 has been registered.

3. Though notice is required to be served on the victim, since

notices have been served to the victim in several other criminal

petitions in this crime as well as in other crimes arisen out of the

same incident, no prejudice would be caused to the victim, if no

notice is served in this Criminal Petition.

4. Heard Ms.P.Anitha, learned counsel for the petitioners and

Sri Soora Venkata Sainath, learned Special Assistant Public

Prosecutor for the respondent-State.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioners, in elaboration what

has been raised in the grounds, contended that initially the

petitioners' names were not figured in the complaint. The

names of the petitioners 1 to 5 are not mentioned in the FIR and

basing on the confession statements of the other accused, their

names were included as accused in this crime. 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. Now the

police are making hectic efforts to take the petitioners into

custody. The petitioners are law abiding citizens and they are

ready to abide by the conditions imposed by this Court.

6. On the other hand, the learned Special Assistant Public

Prosecutor submitted that the petitioners have already

approached Sessions Court and filed bail application wherein the

trial court dismissed their bail applications and the same were

placed on record. Further submitted that the 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 petitions, 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) .......

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





      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.

7. A perusal of the complaint discloses that initially the

petitioners' names were not reflected, but as per the confession

statements of the other accused, the petitioners' names are

reflected in the above crimes.

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 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 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 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 parties 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 Additional Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Amalapuram, in the event of their arrest in connection with Cr.No.127 of 2022 of Amalapuram Taluq Police Station, East Godavari District.

(ii) The petitioners shall appear before the Station House Officer, Amalapuram Taluq 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;

(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 12th August, 2022 RR

THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI

ALLOWED

CRIMINAL PETITION NO.5834 OF 2022

Date : 12.08.2022

RR