The court considered the period of detention and the seriousness of the allegations in deciding to admit the petitioner to court bail.

JUDGMENT

Dinesh Kumar Sharma, J. (Oral)

BAIL APPLN. 2048/2023

1. The present application has been filed seeking regular bail in case FIR No. 299/2023 under Sections 323/354 IPC read with Section 8 of the POCSO Act registered at PS Subhash Place.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that in fact, it was a dispute between two families and the present FIR has been lodged at the instance of the parents of the prosecutrix only to attribute the provisions of the POCSO Act 2012.Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the accused is in custody since 08.04.2022.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner further submits that the charge- sheet has already been filed. It has been submitted that the accused is of 34 years of age and is yet to settle down in the family.

4. It has further been submitted that the trial will take a long time and therefore the petitioner may be admitted to bail.

5. Mr. SiddhrathLuthra, learned senior counsel along with Mr. Anish Ram Dabas, learned counsel has vehemently opposed the grant of bail to the petitioner.

6. Learned senior counsel submits that the petitioner has duly been named in the FIR. Learned senior counsel further submits that it is preposterous on the part of the petitioner to say that the minor child was used as a pawn to attribute the offence punishable under Section 8 of the POCSO Act.

7. Learned senior counsel submits that though the charge-sheet has been filed still there is a possibility of threatening or intimidating the witness.

8. Learned APP for the State has also opposed the application on the ground that the offence is serious in nature and therefore bail may not be granted.

9. The perusal of the FIR indicates that allegedly on the date of incident, two persons came to the house of the prosecutrix and called her mother, the mother of the prosecutrix objected to the same, and thereafter those two persons started beating the mother of the prosecutrix. The complainant specifically stated that one of them was Ramesh and she does not know the name of the other person. It has further been stated in the complaint that one of them was wearing a white T-shirt. It was further alleged that when the complainant tried to intervene the person wearing the white shirt he molested her and pressed her breasts and also gave a fist blow on her eyes. The complainant also alleged that they also gave beatings to her father.

10. It is a matter of record that the accused is in custody since 08.04.2023. There is nothing on the record to indicate that the petitioner is involved in any other case.

11. The jurisprudence regarding the grant of bail is very well settled. The detention period during the trial cannot be taken as a punitive measure. The principles regarding the grant of bail in serious offence cases have been dealt with in Kalyan Chandra Sarkar v. Rajesh Ranjan, 2004 SCC 7 528 it was inter-alia held that:

"11. The law in regard to grant or refusal of bail is very well settled. The court granting bail should exercise its discretion in a judicious manner and not as a matter of course. Though at the stage of granting bail a detailed examination of evidence and elaborate documentation of the merit of the case need not be undertaken, there is a need to indicate in such orders reasons for prima facie concluding why bail was being granted particularly where the accused is charged of having committed a serious offence. Any order devoid of such reasons would suffer from non-application of mind. It is also necessary for the court granting bail to consider among other circumstances, the following factors also before granting bail; they are:

(a) The nature of accusation and the severity of punishment in case of conviction and the nature of supporting evidence.

(b) Reasonable apprehension of tampering with the witness or apprehension of threat to the complainant.

(c) Prima facie satisfaction of the court in support of the charge."

12. In the present case though the allegations