JUDGMENT :

SUVIR SEHGAL, J.

1. The Court has been convened through video conferencing due to Covid-19 pandemic.

2. Vide the instant petition filed under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the petitioner is seeking grant of anticipatory bail in case FIR No.12 dated 05.01.2021 registered for offence under Sections 354 & 323 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Section 8 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act, 2012 (for short “POCSO Act”) and Section 75/79 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (Annexure P-1) at Police Station Model Town Panipat, District Panipat.

3. As per the version of the prosecution, FIR (Annexure P-1) has been registered on the basis of a complaint received from the Child Welfare Committee, Panipat, wherein it has been alleged that the complainant/prosecutrix had been working in the house of Pooja Verma for the last 1½ years and was taking care of her infant and doing odd jobs.

4. Whenever Pooja Verma went to her parental house at Jalandhar, she took her child as well as the complainant along. On one such previous occasion, when she went to Jalandhar in October, 2020, the brother of the petitioner, namely, Pankaj (