This judgment dismisses a criminal appeal regarding the rejection of a bail application in a rape case involving a Scheduled Caste/Tribe woman.
Criminal Appeal No. 1268 of 2023 dismissed.
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Neutral Citation No. - 2023:AHC:150620
Court No. - 85
Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 1268 of 2023
Appellant :- Abhay Pandey @ Kariya Respondent :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Appellant :- Gaurav Kumar Shukla,Ram Prasad Yadav,Vishveshwar Mani Tripathi Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.,Ravindra Prakash Srivastava
Hon'ble Mayank Kumar Jain,J.
Heard learned counsel for the appellant, learned Additional Government Advocate for the State of U.P. and perused the record.
This criminal appeal under Section 14-A(2) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has been preferred by the appellants with the prayer to set aside the bail rejection order dated 16.12.2022 passed by learned Special Judge (SC/ST Act), Basti in Bail Application No. 2439 of 2022, arising out of Case Crime No. 338 of 2022, under Sections 376, 323 IPC and Section 3(2)(V) of SC/ST Act, Police Station Chhawni, District Basti.
The case of prosecution as per FIR is that on 31.10.2022 at around 4-5 pm when the daughter of the informant was grazing animals near canal, all of a sudden, an unknown person came there and asked about the buffalo and thereafter he proceeded further. He again came back and caught prosecutrix from her behind and made her lie on the ground and entered his hands in her private parts and thereafter fled away from the place of occurrence.
Learned counsel for the appellant argued that the appellant has been falsely implicated in this case. The appellant is not named in the first information report. The name of appellant disclosed by the informant during his statement recorded under Section 161 Cr.P.C. It is further submitted that the victim in her statements recorded under Sections 161 and 164 Cr.P.C. did not mention the name of the appellant but addressed as " unknown person ". It is also submitted that the medical report does not corroborate the prosecution version. Lastly, it is submitted by learned counsel for the appellant that there is no chance of the appellant fleeing away from the judicial process or tampering with the prosecution evidence. The appellant is languishing in jail since 10.11.2022 and in case he is released on bail, he will
not misuse the liberty of bail and will cooperate in the early disposal of the case.
Per contra, learned A.G.A. assisted by learned counsel for the informant vehemently opposed the prayer for bail and submitted that the injuries narrated by the victim in her statements recorded under Section 161 and 164 Cr.P.C. found corroboration with the medical report since in external and internal examination certain injuries were observed on the person of the victim. The victim in her statement has corroborated the version of the FIR.
Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, submissions of learned counsel for the parties and keeping in view the statements of the victim recorded under Sections 161 and 164 Cr.P.C. wherein she has made specific allegations of rape against the appellant, I do not not find it a fit case for bail.
Since the trial court has passed the impugned order after appreciating the evidence available on record, there is no occasion to interfere with the finding of fact recorded by the trial court, hence, the present criminal appeal lacks merit and deserves to be dismissed.
Accordingly the criminal appeal is dismissed .
Order Date :- 27.7.2023 Prajapati
Digitally signed by :- RAMKESH PRAJAPATI High Court of Judicature at Allahabad
1 issue framed by the court
Whether the criminal appeal challenging the bail rejection in a rape and POCSO case should be allowed.
Abhay Pandey @ Kariya
State of U.P.
Mayank Kumar Jain
As recorded by the court registry
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