2024:CGHC:32821 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR MCRCA No. 973 of 2024 Thanesh Patel S/o Late Uday Ram Patel, Aged About 37 Years, R/o Ward No. 2, Patel Para Kumhari, Police Station Kumhari, Bhilai-03, District - Durg, Chhattisgarh.

... Applicant versus State of Chhattisgarh Through - Collector, Durg, Police Staion Kumhari, District – Durg, Chhattisgarh.

... Non-applicant For Applicant : Mr. Chandresh Shrivastava, Advocate.

For Non-applicant/State : Mr. Sangharsh Pandey, Govt. Government.

Hon'ble Mr. Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice

Order On Board

28/08/2024

1. This anticipatory bail application under Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 has been filed by the applicant, who is apprehending his arrest in connection with Crime No. 215/2019 registered at Police Station – Kumhari, District – Durg (C.G.) for the offence punishable under Sections 147, 148, 294, 506B, 186 and 353 of the IPC, and Section 3 of Prevention of Damage of Public Property Act, 1984.

2. Prosecution case in brief is that on 30.10.2019 at about 8:35 PM, the complainant (Station-In-Charge) was busy with executing his ofÏcial work at P.S. - Kumhari, District - Durg, when Swapnil Upadhyay (Nagar Palika Chairperson Kumhari), Thanesh Patel (Councillor), Sarvesh Verma, Veeru Patel, Bhupendra Patel, Taamdo, Devendra Sahu, Dev Prakash Sonkar, Ravi, Kamal Sharma along with other people who were about 30-35 in number entered inside the Police Station, charged with anger all started agitating for demand to bring and handover to them Anmol Tiwari, Supendra Sharma, Sonu Singh and others for alleged assaulting and abusing their relative Kamal Sharma and also calling for action against Police Patrolling Party for alleged misbehavior against the above mentioned Kamal Sharma. The said agitation turned so aggressive that the repeated assurance of action by the Police Station-In-Charge was turning ineffective each time. However, the Police was successful in convincing them the leave the Police Station and the premises later on. But they waited outside the Police Station premises where within few time restarted their agitation and raised slogans against the Police department followed by stone pelting on PS which resulted in the breaking of glass of Munshi's OfÏce where Police personnel managed to save themselves from getting hurt. The Police Station-In-Charge was left with no option but to inform the senior ofÏcials of Police department for intervention since there became the situation of Law and Order disturbance to which additional force along with the presence of Senior Police ofÏcials, i.e., ASP(City), ASP(IUCAW), CSP(Bhilai) were sent in response. Then on 31.10.2019 at about 1:15PM, the agitators left the place of incident outside PS Kumhari on assurance by the Police ofÏcials. So was the offence filed under Sections 147, 148, 294, 506-B, 186 and 353 of IPC, along with Section 3 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 for illegally entering the Police Station on large scale, abusing Police personnels, causing damage to Munshi OfÏce window glass, blocking the passage of Police personnels. Hence, this application.

3. Learned counsel for the applicant would submit that the applicant is innocent person and he has not committed any offence as alleged by the prosecution and he is falsely implicated in the present case. It is further submitted that a total of 02 co-accused persons, namely, Swapnil Upadhyay and Bhupendra Kumar have been granted anticipatory bail by this Court vide order dated 18.06.2024 passed in MCRCA No. 643/2024 and 01 co-accused person, namely, Sarvesh Verma has been granted bail by this Court vide order dated 01.03.2021 passed in MCRCA No. 1773/2020. Therefore, he prays for grant of anticipatory bail to the applicant.

4. On the other hand, learned State counsel, would have opposed the prayer for grant of anticipatory bail to the applicant and submits that the applicant along with the co-accused persons, are said to have used filt