This appeal is filed under section 14-A(2) of

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of

Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015 (hereinafter referred to

as ‘SC/ST [POA] Act’, for short) by the appellants

challenging the order passed by the learned Addl. District

and

Sessions

Judge/Special

Judge,

Gadag

in

Crl.Misc.No.14/2023

dated

23.01.2023

whereby

the

learned Sessions Judge has rejected the anticipatory bail

petition filed by the present appellants.

The brief factual matrix leading to the case are

that the complainant Smt. Surekha belonging to scheduled

caste lodged a complaint alleging that on 02.01.2023 in

the noon at 12.05 p.m. she was doing agricultural work in

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her land bearing No.151/1 at Malawad. At that time, the

appellants came there by holding axe and with an

intention to commit the offences both of them quarreled

with the complainant, pulled her dress and snatched her

neck chain i.e., mangalya and they attempted to outrage

her modesty by pulling her saree also. It is further alleged

that when she tried intimate it to her brother-in-law by

mobile, both the accused snatched away her phone and

abused her in filthy language with reference to caste by

asserting th