IMPORTANT POINT
Anticipatory bail in serious offences, particularly those involving minors, requires careful consideration of the allegations and the potential impact on the investigation.

JUDGMENT :

Sumeet Goel, J.

1. Present petition has been filed under Section 482 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (hereinafter to be referred as ‘the BNSS’) for grant of anticipatory bail to the petitioner in case bearing FIR No. 417 dated 25.07.2024, registered for the offences punishable under Sections 351(3), 75(2) & 78 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and under Section 12 of POCSO Act, 2012 at Police Station Sadar Bhiwani, District Bhiwani.

2. The case set up in the FIR in question (as set out in the petition by the petitioner) is as follows:

“My name is Ankita D/o Balwan Singh, R/o Vill. Dinod. I am a student of 9th Class In Govt. Girls High School and my DOB is 02.09.2007. My teacher whose name is Shashi Sham teaches us Hindi. Nearly 20 days ago, he asked me to give my mobile number to him and he will send the School work to me. I wrote my fathers mobile no. i.e. in his phone. Thereafter, instead of sending me school work, he started sending indecent messages and pictures from his number i.e. He said that I should talk to him and started troubling me every day and started to pressurize me to talk to him and started intimidating me. He threatened to kill me and said that he will fail me in school and will also get me expelled from school. He used to tell me in school to see the messages he sent and then delete them. One day he told me that he will stab himself and will slash his veins and he will defame in the school. Then one day he stabbed himself in the hand and sent me a photo and started saying that if I tell anyone at home then he will kill me and he started torturing me a lot. Thereafter, I narrated the whole thing to my family and then I wrote down my statement. I have written the statement in front of my aunt who is along with me and I have read it which is correct. It is correct that legal action may be taken against my teacher and justice should be granted to me, so that he does not behave and do such wrong things with any other female student.”

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that the petitioner is a school teacher (Hindi) by profession at Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Dinod, District Bhiwani and till date no complaint whatsoever has ever been received/made against him. Learned counsel further asserts that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present case at the behest of one and his wife who are nursing a grudge against the petitioner and in a bid to extract revenge, the instant FIR has been registered. In order to harass and humiliate the petitioner, the complainant has concocted a fabricated story of sending the text messages and pictures through whatsapp, which fact is not corroborated by any evidence. Furthermore, the petitioner is not even the class teacher or the instructor of any subject of the complainant which casts a serious doubt on the story put forth by the complainant. It is next submitted by the learned counsel that no recovery is to be effected from the petitioner or at his instance and he is not required for the purpose of custodial interrogation and hence in these circumstances when the petitioner is ready to join the investigation, no useful purpose would be served by sending him behind the bars. It is further submitted that the paramount consideration of bail are the availability of the petitioner to face trial, and in the instant case, there could be no such apprehension about the petitioner evading his trial as he has a fixed abode. It was lastly submitted that the petitioner, being a teacher, has deep roots in the society and, therefore, benefit of anticipatory bail be extended to him.

4. Per contra; the learned State counsel has opposed the grant of anticipatory bail to the petitioner by arguing that the offence committed by the petitioner is serious in nature. According to the learned State counsel, the petitioner was sending objectionable messages to the complainant and later deleted the same. Moreover, in order to elicit the truth, c