Guthula Vijay, vs The State Of Andhra Pradesh,
2022 Latest Caselaw 5162 AP

  THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI

  CRIMINAL PETITION Nos.6072, 6073 & 6074 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:

        Crime No.141 of 2022 dated 24.05.2022 of Amalapuram

Town     Police   Station,   Amalapuram,   East   Godavari   District,

registered against the petitioners/ Accused Nos.292 & 297 for

the offences punishable under Sections 307, 143, 144, 147, 148,

452, 436, 435, 188 r/w. 149 of IPC and Section 32 of Police Act,

1861.

        Crime No.139 of 2022 dated 24.05.2022 of Amalapuram

Town     Police   Station,   Amalapuram,   East   Godavari   District,

registered against the petitioners/ Accused Nos.299 & 304 for

the offences punishable under Sections 307, 143, 144, 147, 148,

151, 152, 332, 336, 427, 188, 353, 324, 435 r/w. 149 of IPC,

Sections 3 and 4 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act,

1984 and Section 32 of Police Act, 1861.

        Crime No.140 of 2022 dated 24.05.2022 of Amalapuram

Town     Police   Station,   Amalapuram,   East   Godavari   District,

registered against the petitioners/ Accused Nos.199 & 204 for

the offences punishable under Sections 341, 143, 144, 147, 148,

151, 336, 435, 188 r/w. 149 of IPC, Sections 3 and 4 of

Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 and Section

32 of Police Act, 1861.
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2.    Since all the petitioners/Accused are one and the same

and all the above crimes were registered in relation to

Konaseema agitation, they are being disposed of by this

common order.

3.    The facts of the case, in brief, are 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
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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 brother of Mummadivaram MLA Crime

No.141 of 2022 was registered, basing on the complaint lodged

by the Village Revenue Officer of the 30th Ward, Amalapuram

town crime No. 139 of 2022 was registered, basing on the

complaint lodged by Driver, APSRTC, Crime No.140 of 2022 was

registered.

4.    Heard Sri T.V.Jaggi Reddy and Sri K.Satyanandam, learned

Counsel for the petitioners and 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. Basing on

the confession statements of the other accused, their names

were arrayed as accused in the above crimes. 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. It is also

contended that the petitioners herein filed Regular bail

application vide Criminal Petition No.5376 of 2022 in crime

No.138 of 2022 and granted Regular bail by this Court on

27.07.2022. It is also contended that the petitioners were

arrested on different dates from 28.05.2022 to 19.06.2022 and

since then they are languishing in jail and requested to consider

enlarging the petitioners on bail on any conditions that may be

imposed.

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) .......

          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.

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

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 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;

(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 16th August, 2022 AG

THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI CHEEMALAPATI

CRIMINAL PETITION NOs.6072, 6073 & 6074 OF 2022

Date : 16.08.2022

AG