Jai Prakash Vs State of Hp

2026:HHC:12143

IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA.

			Cr.MP(M) No.595 of 2026 Decided on: 17.04.2026
____________________________ Jai Prakash	______ Ver	_____ sus	___________________________ ………..Petitioner
State of Himachal Pradesh			……….Respondent
____________________________ Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sandee Whether approved for reporti	______ p Sha ng?¹	_____ rma,	___________________________ Judge.
For the Petitioner :	Mr.	Kush	Sharma, Advocate.
For the Respondent :	Mr. Pan Gen and Adv	Raja war, eral, Mr. ocate	n Kahol & Mr. Vishal Additional Advocates with Mr. Ravi Chauhan Anish Banshtu, Deputy s General, for State.
	Mr. the	Kam compl	lesh Kumar, Advocate, for ainant.
____________________________	ASI Dist alon ______	Sanj rict B g wit _____	eev Kumar, IO, PS Talai, ilaspur, present in person h record. ___________________________

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Sandeep Sharma, Judge (oral):

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Sequel to order dated 10.04.2026, whereby petitioner

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was ordered to be enlarged on interim bail in connection with FIR No.39 of 2026, dated 06.04.2026, registered at Police Station Talai, District Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, under Section 75 of the BNS and Section 8 of the POCSO Act, respondent/State has filed status report prepared on the basis of the investigation carried out by the

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1 Whether the reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the judgment?

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Investigating Agency and ASI Sanjeev Kumar, IO, PS Talai, District Bilaspur, has come present along with record. Record perused and returned.

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Having perused status report, this Court finds that on 06.04.2026, mother of the victim-prosecutrix alleged that her minor daughter i.e. victim-prosecutrix, aged 15 years, had gone to Cooperative Bank, Village Gharan, for KYC, along with her grandmother. She alleged that while her minor daughter was coming back to her house, she was accompanied by bail petitioner, who has been working as Security Guard in Income Tax department. She alleged that bail petitioner, with whom her family had prior acquaintance, not only behaved indecently with her minor daughter, but also attempted to touch her private parts. She alleged that bail petitioner also extended threat to her minor daughter to do away with her life in case she discloses afore incident to her family members. In the afore background, FIR, detailed hereinabove, came to be lodged against the bail petitioner, but before he could be arrested, bail petitioner approached this Court in the instant proceedings for grant of anticipatory bail.

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Mr. Rajan Kahol, learned Additional Advocate General,

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on instructions from the Investigating Officer, who is present in Court, fairly admits factum of joining of investigation by the bail

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petitioner in terms of order dated 10.04.2026 passed by this Court. He fairly states that petitioner after his having joined the investigation has fully cooperated, but since he is accused of heinous crime punishable under Section 75 of the BNS and Section 8 of the POCSO Act, he does not deserve any leniency, rather needs to be dealt with in accordance with law. He states that though judicial custody of the bail petitioner is not required, but it may not be in the interest of justice to accept the prayer made on behalf of the petitioner, because in that eventuality, he may again cause harm to victim-prosecutrix.

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In terms of order dated 10.04.2026, petitioner has already joined the investigation and nothing remains to be recovered from him, however, prayer made on his behalf for confirmation of bail is being opposed by Mr. Kamlesh Kumar, Advocate, who has put in appearance on behalf of complainant. He states that as per instructions imparted to him, petitioner has been constantly mounting pressure upon the victim-prosecutrix as well as her family members to compromise the matter and as such, it may not be in the interest of justice to confirm his bail, because in that situation, he may again cause harm to the victimprosecutrix.

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There is nothing on record to suggest that complaint, if any, with regard to aforesaid act of extending threats, if any, at the behest of bail petitioner ever came to be reported to the Police. No doubt, petitioner is accused of heinous crime punishable under Section 8 of the POCSO Act, but bare perusal of aforesaid provision of law clearly reveals that to invoke Section 8 of the POCSO Act, prosecution is under obligation to prove sexual intent, if any, on the person charged with aforesaid provision of law.

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Since at this stage no cogent and convincing material has been adduced on record to prove the sexual intent, coupled with the fact that custodial interrogation of the petitioner is not required, this Court sees no reason to deny the confirmation of bail granted to the petitioner vide order dated 10.04.2026, especially when guilt, if any, of the petitioner is yet to be established on record by leading cogent and convincing evidence.

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During proceedings of the case, learned counsel representing the petitioner made available certain record with regard to WhatsApp messages as well as Google Pay transaction inter se bail petitioner and family of the victim-prosecutrix, which clearly reveals that family of victim-prosecutrix has been constantly borrowing money from the bail petitioner. Moreover, this Court is unable to understand that once victim-prosecutrix

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had gone to bank along with her grandmother, where was the occasion for grandmother to leave her granddaughter in the company of bail petitioner.

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By now it is well settled that freedom of an individual is of utmost importance and cannot be curtailed for indefinite period. Till the time guilt of accused is not proved, in accordance with law, he is deemed to be innocent. In the case at hand, the guilt, if any, of the bail petitioner is yet to be proved, in accordance with law.

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The Hon'ble Apex Court in Criminal Appeal No.227/2018, Dataram Singh vs. State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr decided on 6.2.2018 has categorically held that freedom of an individual is of utmost importance and same cannot be curtailed merely on the basis of suspicion. Hon’ble Apex Court has further held that till the time guilt of accused is not proved, in accordance with law, he is deemed to be innocent. The relevant paras No.2 to 5 of the judgment are reproduced as under:-

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“2. A fundamental postulate of criminal jurisprudence is the presumption of innocence, meaning thereby that a person is believed to be innocent until found guilty. However, there are instances in our criminal law where a reverse onus has been placed on an accused with regard to some specific offences but that is another matter and does not detract from the fundamental postulate in respect of other offences. Yet another important facet of our criminal jurisprudence is that the grant of bail is the general rule and putting a person in jail or in a prison or in a correction home (whichever expression one may wish to use) is an exception.

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Unfortunately, some of these basic principles appear to have been lost sight of with the result that more and more persons are being incarcerated and for longer periods. This does not do any good to our criminal jurisprudence or to our society.

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3. There is no doubt that the grant or denial of bail is entirely the discretion of the judge considering a case but even so, the exercise of judicial discretion has been circumscribed by a large number of decisions rendered by this Court and by every High Court in the country. Yet, occasionally there is a necessity to introspect whether denying bail to an accused person is the right thing to do on the facts and in the circumstances of a case.

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4. While so introspecting, among the factors that need to be considered is whether the accused was arrested during investigations when that person perhaps has the best opportunity to tamper with the evidence or influence witnesses. If the investigating officer does not find it necessary to arrest an accused person during investigations, a strong case should be made out for placing that person in judicial custody after a charge sheet is filed. Similarly, it is important to ascertain whether the accused was participating in the investigations to the satisfaction of the investigating officer and was not absconding or not appearing when required by the investigating officer. Surely, if an accused is not hiding from the investigating officer or is hiding due to some genuine and expressed fear of being victimised, it would be a factor that a judge would need to consider in an appropriate case. It is also necessary for the judge to consider whether the accused is a first-time offender or has been accused of other offences and if so, the nature of such offences and his or her general conduct. The poverty or the deemed indigent status of an accused is also an extremely important factor and even Parliament has taken notice of it by incorporating an Explanation to Section 436 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. An equally soft approach to incarceration has been taken by Parliament by inserting Section 436A in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

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5. To put it shortly, a humane attitude is required to be adopted by a judge, while dealing with an application for remanding a suspect or an accused person to police custody or judicial custody. There are several reasons for this including maintaining the dignity of an accused person, howsoever poor that person might be, the requirements of Article 21 of the Constitution and the fact that there is enormous overcrowding in prisons, leading to social and other

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problems as noticed by this Court in In Re-Inhuman Conditions in 1382 Prisons.”

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Needless to say, object of the bail is to secure the attendance of the accused in the trial and the proper test to be applied in the solution of the question whether bail should be granted or refused is whether it is probable that the party will appear to take his trial. Otherwise, bail is not to be withheld as a punishment. Otherwise also, normal rule is of bail and not jail. Court has to keep in mind nature of accusations, nature of evidence in support thereof, severity of the punishment which conviction will entail, character of the accused, circumstances which are peculiar to the accused involved in that crime.

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The Hon’ble Apex Court in Sanjay Chandra versus Central Bureau of Investigation (2012)1 Supreme Court Cases 49; held as under:-

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“The object of bail is to secure the appearance of the accused person at his trial by reasonable amount of bail. The object of bail is neither punitive nor preventative. Deprivation of liberty must be considered a punishment, unless it can be required to ensure that an accused person will stand his trial when called upon. The Courts owe more than verbal respect to the principle that punishment begins after conviction, and that every man is deemed to be innocent until duly tried and duly found guilty. Detention in custody pending completion of trial could be a cause of great hardship. From time to time, necessity demands that some unconvicted persons should be held in custody pending trial to secure their attendance at the trial but in such cases, “necessity” is the operative test. In India , it would be quite contrary to the concept of personal liberty enshrined in the Constitution that any person should be punished in respect of any matter, upon which, he has not

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been convicted or that in any circumstances, he should be deprived of his liberty upon only the belief that he will tamper with the witnesses if left at liberty, save in the most extraordinary circumstances. Apart from the question of prevention being the object of refusal of bail, one must not lose sight of the fact that any imprisonment before conviction has a substantial punitive content and it would be improper for any court to refuse bail as a mark of disapproval of former conduct whether the accused has been convicted for it or not or to refuse bail to an unconvicted person for the propose of giving him a taste of imprisonment as a lesson.”

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12. The Hon’ble Apex Court in Prasanta Kumar Sarkar

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v. Ashis Chatterjee and Another (2010) 14 SCC 496, has laid

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down the following principles to be kept in mind, while deciding

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petition for bail:

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(i) whether there is any prima facie or reasonable ground to believe that the accused had committed the offence;

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(ii) nature and gravity of the accusation;

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(iii) severity of the punishment in the event of conviction;

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(iv) danger of the accused absconding or fleeing, if released on bail;

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(v) character, behaviour, means, position and standing of the accused;

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(vi) likelihood of the offence being repeated;

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(vii) reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being influenced; and

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(viii) danger, of course, of justice being thwarted by grant of bail.

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Consequently, in view of the above, order dated

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10.04.2026 passed by this Court, is made absolute, with following

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conditions:-

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a. he shall make himself available for the purpose of interrogation, if so required and regularly attend the trial Court on each and every date of hearing and if prevented by any reason to do so, seek exemption from appearance by filing appropriate application;

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b. he shall not tamper with the prosecution evidence nor hamper the investigation of the case in any manner whatsoever;

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c. he shall not make any inducement, threat or promises to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the Court or the Police Officer; and

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d. he shall not leave the territory of India without the prior permission of the Court.

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It is clarified that if the petitioner misuses his liberty

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or violates any of the conditions imposed upon him, the Investigating Agency shall be free to move this Court for cancellation of the bail.

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Any observations made hereinabove shall not be construed to be a reflection on the merits of the case and shall remain confined to the disposal of this application alone.

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The bail petition stands disposed of accordingly. The petitioner is permitted to produce copy of order downloaded from the High Court website and the trial Court shall not insist for certified copy of the order, however, it may verify the order from the High Court website or otherwise.

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April 17, 2026 (Sandeep Sharma), Rajeev Raturi Judge

Jai Prakash v. State of Hp

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Jai Prakash v. State of Hp

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