APHC010629262025 IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATI [3521]

(Special Original Jurisdiction)

MONDAY,THE EIGHTH DAY OF DECEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE PRESENT THE HONOURABLE DR JUSTICE Y. LAKSHMANA RAO CRIMINAL PETITION NO: 12094/2025 Between:

Challamanoj Kumar Alias Manoj ...PETITIONER/ACCUSED AND The State Of Andhra Pradesh ...RESPONDENT/COMPLAINANT Counsel for the Petitioner/accused:

1. HEMANTH KUMAR VENNA Counsel for the Respondent/complainant:

1. PUBLIC PROSECUTOR The Court made the following:

ORDER:

The Criminal Petition has been filed under Sections 480 and 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for brevity ‘the BNSS’), seeking to enlarge the Petitioner/Accused No.1 on bail in S.C.No.3 of 2022 on the file of Principal District & Sessions Judge, Ananthapuram (Crime No.525 of 2020 of Ananthapuram II Town Police Station for the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 120(B) read with Section 34 of Indian Penal Code (for brevity ‘the IPC’)).

2. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Assistant Public Prosecutor. Perused the record.

3. The petitioner is alleged to have committed the offence punishable under Section 302 of ‘the IPC’. The petitioner did not appear before the learned Trial Court on 27.09.2024. Therefore, the learned Trial Court was constrained to issue NBW against the petitioner, which was executed on 20.08.2025. He was thereafter remanded to judicial custody. The reason assigned by the petitioner for not appearing before the learned Trial Court is that he had gone to attend the funeral of his relative.

4. On an earlier occasion as well, the learned Trial Court observed that the petitioner had absconded from the process of trial from 12.12.2022 to 03.02.2023. The petitioner again absconded, and on 26.07.2023 the learned Trial Court was constrained to issue another NBW. Upon execution of the NBW, the petitioner was produced before the Court, which observed that the petitioner had absconded from the process of trial for one year.

5. The learned Assistant Public Prosecutor submits that when the police first attempted to execute the NBW, the petitioner escaped from their custody. In this regard, a case in FIR No.72 of 2025 was registered for the offence under Section 262 of ‘the BNS’ at Dunneru II Town Police Station, Ananthapuram.

6. The present case pertains to the year 2020 and is a five-year-old matter. It has to be disposed of on a priority basis. Therefore, the request of the petitioner to be enlarged on bail is not found to be convincing or reasonable. The petitioner was arrested on 20.08.2025. He has been in judicial custody for the past 108 days. The trial is at a progressive stage, and so far, 10 prosecution witnesses have been examined. Even if he is released on bail, he may show tendency to avoid the process of law.

7. Accordingly, this Court is not inclined to enlarge the petitioner on bail at this stage. Hence, there are no merits in this petition, and the present Criminal Petition is liable to be dismissed.

8. In the result, the Criminal Petition is dismissed.

As a sequel, Miscellaneous petitions, if any pending, shall stand closed.

_________________________

DR. Y. LAKSHMANA RAO, J Date: 08.12.2025

S D P

THE HONOURABLE DR JUSTICE Y. LAKSHMANA RAO CRIMINAL PETITION NO: 12094 OF 2025

08.12.2025 S D P