Court emphasized that a lack of incriminating evidence and the consensual nature of the relationship justified granting bail.

Counsel for Appellant(s) : Pawan Kumar Pandey, Arjun Singh Somvanshi Counsel for Respondent(s) : G.A., Sajjad Husain Court No. - 28 HON'BLE PRAMOD KUMAR SRIVASTAVA, J.

Vide order dated 28.06.2024, notice has been issued to opposite party no. 2 and as per office report, the same has been served personally on opposite party no. 2.

Today when the case is taken up, neither counsel on behalf of opposite party no. 2 is present nor any counter has been filed, therefore, this Court has no option but to proceed in the matter to decide the instant appeal.

Heard learned counsel for the appellant and learned AGA for the State as well as perused the record.

The present criminal appeal under Section 14-A (2) Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has been preferred against the impugned order dated 14.06.2024 passed by Special Judge, SC/ST Act, Unnao in Bail Application No. 1273 of 2024 in Case Crime No. 71 of 2024, under Section 376 IPC and Sections 3(2)5 of SC/ST Act, Police Station Fatehpur Chaurasi, District Unnao, whereby the bail application of the appellant has been rejected.

Learned counsel for the appellant submits that the appellant has been falsely implicated in the present case. He further submits that the deceased was major, aged about 19 years, who voluntarily established the physical relationship with the appellant. He further submits that the victim committed suicide due to making her obscene video clip by other accused persons. No incriminating article has been recovered from the possession of the appellant and no video clip was recovered. He further submits that other co-accused persons have been enlarged on bail by this Court. He next added that the appellant has no criminal history and he is languishing in jail since 19.03.2024 and in case the appellant is enlarged on bail, he shall not misuse the liberty of bail and he shall also fully cooperate with the trial. He has further submitted that there is no possibility of the appellant to intimidate or pressurize the witnesses or any other persons acquainted with the facts of the present case.

For the aforesaid reasons, learned counsel for the appellant submits that the instant criminal appeal deserves to be allowed and the impugned order may be set aside and consequently, the appellant deserves to be enlarged on bail during pendency of the trial.

Per contra, learned AGA has opposed the prayer by submitting that the appellant is named in the FIR and he has committed rape upon the victim by virtue of which she committed suicide, therefore, the appellant is not entitled to be enlarged on bail and the instant criminal appeal deserves to be dismissed. However, he has been unable to dispute the other factual submissions advanced by the learned counsel for the appellant.

Considering the submissions of learned counsel for the parties and after perusal of material available on record, including the allegations made in the FIR, it is apparent that the deceased-victim was major at the time of incident and it appears that relationship established by the victim-deceased was consensual; no video clip was recovered from the pointing out of the appellant; chargesheet has been filed in the matter; other co-accused persons, against whom the allegation of making video clip is made, have already been enlarged on bail; the appellant is languishing in jail since 19.03.2024 and he has undertaken that in case he is enlarged on bail, he shall not misuse the liberty of bail and will cooperate with the trial and without expressing any opinion on merit, this Court is of the view that the learned court below has failed to appreciate the material available on record, thus, the order passed by the court below is liable to be set aside.

Accordingly, the appeal is allowed. Consequently, the impugned order dated 14.06.2024 passed by Special Judge, SC/ST Act, Unnao in Bail Application No. 1273 of 2024 in Case Crime No. 71 of 2024, under Section 376 IPC and Sections 3(2)5 of SC/ST Act, P