High Court
Case Details
Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:14070 Court No. - 82 Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 10002 of 2024 Appellant :- Anuj Kumar Dubey Respondent :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Appellant :- Ajay Singh Sengar,Saurabh Pathak,Vijay Singh Sengar Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.,Mukesh Kumar Pandey
Legal Reasoning
Hon'ble Nalin Kumar Srivastava,J. 1. Heard learned counsel for the appellant, learned counsel for the opposite party no. 2 and learned A.G.A. for the State and perused the material available on record. 2. This criminal appeal under Section 14-A (2) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has been preferred by the appellant Anuj Kumar Dubey with the prayer to set aside the bail rejection order dated 23.09.2024 passed by the Special Judge, (SC/ST Act), (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Auraiya in Bail Application No. 1625 of 2024. 3. The prosecution has come forward with a case that on the false pretext of marriage the accused/appellant-Anuj Kumar Dubey made and continued physical relations with the prosecutrix for many years. On 31.07.2024 at about 11:30 in the night when he came to the house of the victim to meet her, he was caught by the brother of the victim and then the real facts were disclosed by the victim. The F.I.R. was lodged and the investigation started. 4. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the appellant that the appellant is innocent and has been falsely implicated in this case. He has not committed the present offence. Alleged offences are not attracted against him. Essential ingredients to establish an offence under SC/ST Act are also missing in this case. It is further submitted by the learned counsel for the appellant that the appellant has committed no offence as alleged by the prosecution. It is also submitted that the appellant and the victim of this case are major persons. It is a case of consensual relationship. The physical relations between the victim and the appellant were made and developed with the free will and consent of the prosecutrix herself and when he was caught by the family members of the victim he was implicated in this false case. It is further submitted that in her statement under section 161 and 164 Cr.P.C. the prosecutrix has also admitted that it was a case of consensual relationship. The trial Court while passing the impugned order did not take into account the facts and evidence available on record in right perspective and erred in passing the same. Appellant is in jail since 02.08.2024. It is lastly submitted that the impugned order rejecting the bail application of the appellant suffers from infirmity and illegality warranting interference by this Court. 5. Per contra, learned AGA and learned counsel for the opposite party no. 2 vehemently oppose the present appeal it has been submitted that the relationship between the duo developed on the false pretext of marriage made by the appellant from time to time and the prosecutrix under impression that one day the accused will marry her continued the physical relations, but since appellant did not marry her rather refused to marry she came to know that her consent was obtained fraudulently. It is further submitted that as a matter of fact the appellant has got married with some other lady and since the very inception he had no intention to marry with the victim of this case. It was also submitted that on a couple of occasions she also terminated her pregnancy during the relationship with the accused. There is no infirmity or illegality in the impugned order dated 23.09.2024. 6. In the present case it is very surprising that the victim of this case being a major lady continued to be in physical relation with the appellant for a period of over 10 years and never compelled with him to marry with her and did not disclose this fact even to her family members. Although the appellant has got married now but the victim of this case being a mature and major lady was very well knowing the nature and consequence of what she was doing. No doubt it is a case of consensual relationship between the persons of two opposite sex. Investigation is going on. 7. I have considered the rival submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the entire record including the impugned order carefully. 8. Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case and keeping in view the nature of the offence, evidence, complicity of the accused, severity of punishment, the Court is of the opinion that the appellant has made out a case for bail. The trial Court erred in rejecting the bail application. The impugned order suffers from infirmity and illegality and the same is liable to be set-aside and the appeal is to be allowed. 9. Accordingly, the appeal is allowed and the impugned order rejecting the bail application of the appellant is, hereby, set-aside. 10 Let the appellant- Anuj Kumar Dubey involved in Case Crime No. 391 of 2024, under Section 69 B.N.S. & Section 3(2)(V) of SC/ST Act, Police Station- Auraiya, District Auraiya be released on bail on furnishing a personal bond and two heavy sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court concerned subject to following conditions. Further, before issuing the release order, the sureties be verified. (i) The appellant will not tamper with the evidence during the trial. (ii) The appellant will not pressurize/ intimidate the prosecution witness. (iii) The appellant will appear before the trial court on the date fixed, unless personal presence is exempted. (iv) The appellant shall not commit an offence similar to the offence of which he is accused, or suspected, of the commission of which he is suspected. (v) The appellant shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the Court or to any police officer or tamper with the evidence. 11. In case of breach of any of the above conditions, the prosecution shall be at liberty to move bail cancellation application before this Court. Order Date :- 27.1.2025 Vikram Digitally signed by :- VIKRAM SINGH High Court of Judicature at Allahabad