The court ruled that the lack of evidence regarding the appellant's knowledge of the complainant's caste justified the granting of bail.

Order

1. The instant appeal has been filed under Section 14A(2) SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on behalf of the appellant, who is in custody in connection with F.I.R. No.177/2024 registered at Police Station Bagadi, District Pali, for the offences under Sections 126(2), 115(2), 74 & 189(2) of BNS; Section 3(1)(r)(s) & 3(2)(va) of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the order dated 03.12.2024 passed by the learned Special Judge Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act Cases, Pali whereby, the bail application preferred under Section 483 of BNSS on behalf of the appellant was rejected.

2. Drawing attention of the Court towards the injury report of the injured persons, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that all the injuries allegedly inflicted by the petitioner upon the injured persons are simple in nature. Learned counsel further submitted that at the time when the alleged incident occurred, the appellant had no knowledge about the caste of the complainant and, therefore, it is totally incorrect to say that he has intentionally used the caste based slurs. Learned counsel further submitted that the appellant has been falsely implicated in the present case; the appellant is in custody and trial of the case will take sufficiently long time to be concluded, therefore, the benefit of bail may be granted to the accused-appellant.

3. Per Contra, learned Public Prosecutor as well as learned counsel for the complainant have opposed the prayer for bail.

4. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material available on record.

5. Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the present case as available on record in entirety and upon a careful consideration of the arguments advanced at Bar, this Court is of the prima facie opinion that the order rejecting the application for bail filed on behalf of the appellant, cannot be sustained and deserves to be set aside particularly for the reason that there is nothing on record which indicate that the appellant had hurled abuses towards the complainant with the knowledge that he belonged to SC/ST Category.

6. Consequently, the instant appeal is allowed. The impugned order dated 03.12.2024 passed by the learned Special Judge Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act Cases, Pali is set aside. It is ordered that the accused-appellant Bhagwati @ Pappu Kalal S/o Ashok arrested in connection with F.I.R. No.177/2024 registered at Police Station Bagadi, District Pali shall be released on bail; provided he furnishes a personal bond of Rs. 50,000/- and two surety bonds of Rs. 25,000/- each to the satisfaction of the learned trial Court with the stipulation to appear before that Court on all dates of hearing and as and when called upon to do so.

7. 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.