IMPORTANT POINT
The presumption of innocence and the right to bail are fundamental principles of criminal jurisprudence, emphasizing that bail should not be denied as a form of punishment and that the presence of the accused can be ensured through conditions.

JUDGMENT :

MOHAN LAL, J.

1. Since all the aforesaid three bail applications viz. BA No. 161/2021, B.A. No. 81/2021, B.A. No. 97/2021 arise out of a common FIR No. 136/2020 registered with Police Station Billawar (District Kathua) for commission of offences under sections 363, 376, 109 IPC r/w Sections 4/17 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act), therefore, all of them are disposed of by this common order.

B.A No. 161/2021

In BA No. 161/2021 applicant has claimed bail in terms of Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as the, “Code”) on the grounds, that he is a peace loving and law abiding citizen of India and permanent resident of UT of J&K, hence entitled to the constitutional, fundamental, legal and statutory rights available under the Constitution and Criminal Procedure Code; that the applicant has a distant friend-Mr. Y, who is juvenile and in conflict with law, applicant belongs to a very decent family and works in his own shop situated on the roof of his residence; he has no criminal record and having full regard towards the law; that the applicant has never been involved in any case whether criminal or civil one; that one Miss X, daughter of one Sudesh Kumar went missing from her home on 24.11.2020 at about 9.45 am in the morning, her father searched for her everywhere including the houses of the relatives, but the girl was not found anywhere, father of the said girl filed a false and frivolous complaint in Police Station Billawar on 27.11.2020 and named the applicant as one of the accused alleged to have abducted his daughter Miss X, who came back to Ramkot (Challain) on 28.11.2020 when police took her into custody, wherefrom, she was taken to Munsiff Court (JMIC) Billawar by the police for recording of her statement under section 164 of the Cr.P.C. that the juvenile who was suspected in the case was not arrested but the respondent made life of the petitioner hell, the juvenile approached juvenile board for bail and surrendered in the observation home at R.S. Pura, although the juvenile had obtained the bail order from the learned Principal Magistrate, but he could not get bail for eight (8) days as the police launched a manhunt for the father and mother of the juvenile who could not be taken into custody, and it was only after the order got modified to restore the custody of the mother of the juvenile, the custody was transferred; that there is huge delay in registration of the impugned FIR, the applicant has been unnecessarily dragged in the false, baseless and frivolous case, to which he is totally alien; that Miss X has stated firstly in her statement recorded under section 164 of the Cr.P.C before the Munsiff Billawar that she had travelled to Mata Vaishno Devi Katra and no one had kidnapped her and she also refused to go home with her father, as he beats her for not acting according to him, whereby, she was sent to Nari Niketan Kathua upon her consistent refusal to live with her father at home; that one Sudesh Kumar on behalf of the victim (Miss X) filed a writ petition bearing SWP No. 154/2021 by concealing the material facts from the Court without making the applicant as party and got an ex-parte order of constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and even the security was provided to her, the father of Miss X wants to take revenge from the applicant and forces Miss X to change her statement and even Miss X is not a juvenile at present as she has acquired majority on 07.03.2021; that the main accused in the case in hand is juvenile, his father and mother (co-accused) in the aforesaid FIR have already been granted interim bail by this Court in two separate bail applications; that the applicant first approached the Court of learned Principal Sessions Judge Kathua for grant bail, but was denied bail on 22.03.2021, thereafter, he again approached for grant of bail when the co-accused were granted bail and the challan was on the verge of completion, wh