Kudupudi Srinu, vs The State Of Andhra Pradesh,
2022 Latest Caselaw 5139 AP

     THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI

      CRIMINAL PETITION Nos.6091, 6119 & 6118 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, registered in respect of the

same incident. Hence, all the 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.


      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.


      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.



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
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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.

       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 Dasari S.V.V.S.V. Prasad, 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 six crimes were

registered in connection with the incident said to have been occurred on

24.05.2022 at Amalapuram i.e. Crime Nos.138, 139, 140 and 141 of 2022

of Amalapuram Town Police Station and Crime Nos.126 and 127 of

Amalapuram Taluq Police Station. The petitioners herein are accused in

Crime Nos.138, 139 and 141 of 2022. It is stated that initially petitioners'

names were not figured in these crimes. Basing on the confession

statements of the one of the arrested accused, the petitioners were

arrested in one crime and shown their arrest in the remaining crimes on

P.T. Warrant.

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

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

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 statement of one of the arrested accused, the petitioners' were

implicated.

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 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.

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

appropriate to consider granting bail to the petitioners herein on the

following conditions, duly considering the apprehension of the learned

Special Assistant Public Prosecutor:

(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 Junior Civil Judge-cum-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 petitioner shall scrupulously comply with the above

conditions and in case of infraction of the same, the prosecution is at

liberty to move appropriate application for cancellation of bail.

It is made clear that this order does not, in any manner, limit or

restrict the rights of the Police or the investigating agency from further

investigation as per law and the finding in this order be construed as

expression of opinion only for the limited purpose of considering bail in

the above Criminal Petition and shall not have any bearing in any other

proceedings.

Accordingly, the Criminal Petitions are allowed.

Miscellaneous applications, pending if any, shall stand closed.

________________________

JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI

12th August, 2022

GBS