The court granted bail based on the absence of criminal antecedents, the co-accused's earlier bail, and the lack of pending recovery from the petitioner.

ORDER :

KULDEEP MATHUR, J.

1.This application for bail under Section 483 of BNSS has been filed by the petitioner who has been arrested in connection with F.I.R. No.253/2022 registered at Police Station Surajpol, District Udaipur, for offences under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468 and 471 IPC and Sections 3, 4 and 6 of the Rajasthan Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1992.

2. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Public Prosecutor. Perused the material available on record.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that as per the prosecution, one Naresh Kumar appeared as a dummy candidate in place of the present petitioner for the recruitment to the post of Village Development Officer Competitive Examination conducted by the recruitment agency. Learned counsel submitted that the co- accused Naresh Kumar, who had allegedly appeared as dummy candidate in place of the present petitioner, has already been enlarged on bail by a competent criminal Court vide order dated 19.07.2022.

4. Learned counsel submitted that the petitioner is in judicial custody; no recovery is due to be effected from him; he does not have any criminal antecedents and the trial of the case is likely to consume sufficiently long time. On these grounds, he implored the Court to enlarge the petitioner on bail.

5. Per contra, learned Public Prosecutor has opposed the bail application. However, he was not in position to refute the fact that the co-accused Naresh Kumar, who had allegedly appeared as dummy candidate in place of the present petitioner, has already been enlarged on bail by a competent criminal court.

6. Having considered the rival submissions, facts and circumstances of the case, without expressing any opinion on merits/demerits of the case, this Court is inclined to enlarge the petitioner on bail.

7. Consequently, the bail application under Section 483 of BNSS is allowed. It is ordered that the accused-petitioner Asuram S/o Virdaram arrested in connection with F.I.R. No.253/2022 registered at Police Station Surajpol, District Udaipur, shall be released on bail, if not wanted in any other case, provided he furnishes a personal bond of Rs.50,000/- and two sureties of Rs.25,000/- each, to the satisfaction of learned trial court, for his appearance before that court on each & every date of hearing and whenever called upon to do so till completion of the trial.

8. It is however, made clear that findings recorded/observations made above are for limited purposes of adjudication of bail application. The trial court shall not get prejudiced by the same.