Chattisgarh High Court
Khileshwar Yadav vs The State Of Chhattisgarh on 24 February, 2025
1
HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR
CRA No. 2079 of 2023
Khileshwar Yadav S/o Shivcharan Yadav Aged About 26 Years R/o
Rawat Sari, P.S. Sonhat, District : Koriya (Baikunthpur), Chhattisgarh.
... Applicant
versus
The State of Chhattisgarh Through District Magistrate, District :
Koriya (Baikunthpur), Chhattisgarh.
... Non-applicant
Order Sheet
24/02/2025
By the impugned judgment of conviction and
RAJSHEKHAR
SONI order of sentence dated 27.07.2023 passed in
Digitally signed
by
RAJSHEKHAR
Special Criminal Case No. 55/2021, the learned
SONI
Additional Sessions Judge F.T.C. and Special Judge
(POCSO Act), Baikunthpur, District- Koriya, C.G, has
convicted and sentenced the appellant in the
following manner:
2
Conviction Sentence Fine In default of
under (Rigorous payment of fine
Section imprisonment) add. R.I.
Section 363 3 years Rs. 500/- 01 month
of the IPC
Section 366 5 years Rs. 500/- 01 month
of the IPC
Section 4 of 10 year Rs. 01 month
the POCSO 2,000/-
Act
Heard Mr. Hemant Kumar Agrawal, learned
counsel for the appellant and Mr. Amit Verma,
learned Panel Lawyer, appearing for the
State/respondent on the instant application for
suspension of sentence and grant of bail (I.A. No. 02
of 2023).
Learned counsel for the convict/appellant has
argued that the appellant has been falsely implicated in
the present case and there is no evidence on record to
connect the appellant with commission of the offence.
It is further argued by the learned counsel for the
appellant that as per the prosecution case, the age of
the victim was 16 years 7 months and 2 days at the
time of incident, and she appears to have eloped with
the appellant and had gone to the Bazardand on his
motorcycle, and after that she was seen by her mother
along with the appellant, and the appellant was
disliked by her mother, on account of which the
appellant has been falsely roped in the present case.
He also submits that though the FSL report is negative,
so far as the MLC report is concerned, there was some
scratch marks were found on her back, which can be
result of some physical relationship established
between the victim and the appellant, and the victim
was a consenting party. He relies upon the judgment
passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of
Tilku Alia Tilak Singh vs. The State of Uttrakhand
(Criminal Appeal No. 183 of 2014) decided on
06.02.2025 wherein, the Hon'ble Apex Court has
followed with approval of the judgment of S.
Vardarajan vs. State of Madras 1964 SCC OnLine
SC 36 and has held that when the prosecutrix age is
between 16 to 18 years and she has voluntarily eloped
with the appellant showing that she was a consenting
party thereupon, the suspension of sentence and bail
application of the appellant shall be allowed. The
appellant is languishing in jail since 21.11.2021, and
he has already served jail sentence for a period of
more than 4 years. Further the appeal is likely to take
a couple of years or even more in its final disposal,
hence, he prays that the appellant be enlarged on
bail, failing which, the present appeal would become
infructuous.
Learned counsel for the appellant relied upon the
judgment passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the
matters of Atul Alias Ashutosh vs. State of Madhya
Pradesh (2024) 3 SCC 663 and Nanhe Lal Verma
vs. State of Madhya Pradesh (Arising out of SLP
(Criminal) No. 14769 of 2024) decided on
25.11.2024 wherein, the Hon'ble Apex Court has held
that when there is a fixed term sentence and especially
when the appeal is not likely to be heard before
completing entire period of sentence, normally
suspension of sentence and bail should be granted.
However, Mr. Amit Verma, learned Panel
Lawyer, appearing for the State opposes the prayer
for grant of bail.
I have heard learned counsel for the parties and
perused the bail application.
Considering the submissions advanced by the
learned counsel for the parties, relying upon the
judgment passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the
matter of Atul Alias Ashutosh (Supra) and Nanhe
Lal Verma (Supra), also considering the evidence
available on record and the fact that the the age of the
victim was 16 years 7 months and 2 days at the time of
incident, and she appears to have eloped with the
appellant and had gone to the Bazardand on his
motorcycle, and after that she was seen by her mother
along with the appellant, and the appellant was
disliked by her mother, on account of which he has
been falsely roped in the present case, though the FSL
report is negative, so far as the MLC report is
concerned, there was some scratch marks were found
on her back, which can be result of some physical
relationship established between the victim and the
appellant, and the victim was a consenting party, as
such relying upon the judgment passed by the Hon'ble
Apex Court in the matter of Tilku Alia Tilak Singh
(supra) and the fact that appellant is in jail since
21.11.2021 and further hearing of this appeal would
take prolonged period of time, as such, this Court
deems it appropriate to allow the application for
suspension of sentence and grant of bail moved on
behalf of the appellant.
Accordingly, the substantive jail sentence
awarded to appellant- Khileshwar Yadav by the
learned trial Court is hereby suspended. He shall be
released on bail on his executing bail bond with two
sureties to the satisfaction of the concerned trial Court
for his appearance before the Registry of this Court on
22.04.2025. He shall thereafter, appear before the
concerned trial Court on a date to be given by the
Registry of this Court and shall continue to appear
there on all such subsequent dates as are given to him
by the said Court, interval being not less than 06
months, till final disposal of this appeal.
Consequently, IA No. 02 of 2023 filed is
allowed.
It is made clear that the observations made
hereinabove are only confined for disposal of
aforesaid IA filed in this appeal and it shall not be
construed as an expression of opinion of this Court
on merits of the matter.
List this matter for final hearing.
Certified copy, as per rules.
Sd/-
(Ramesh Sinha)
Chief Justice
Rajshekhar
