A person with no criminal history may be granted anticipatory bail if the necessity for custodial interrogation is absent.

O R D E R

Dated this the 30th day of March 2021 Application for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of Cr.P.C.

The applicant is the sole accused in Crime No.771/2020 of Chittarikal Police Station, Kasargod for having allegedly committed offences punishable under Sections 353 , 448 and 506 of IPC and under Section 128 (1) (b) and (ii) of the Kerala Panchayath Raj Act .

2. The prosecution case, in brief, is that on 14.12.2020, when the de facto complainant was allegedly engaged in the Kerala Panchayat Election as a Presiding Officer of the polling booth No.18/2 of Kappathi Anganvadi situated in Bheemanadi Village and the election was in progress, by about 10.30 a.m., the applicant trespassed into the polling station, intimidated that he would not allow the first polling officer to leave the polling booth after the election has concluded and thereby caused interruption to the polling and deterred the polling officers from discharging their duty.

3. The applicant states that the allegations are not true.

He is a retired teacher aged 69 years old with 33 years of experience in teaching. He was the Chief Election agent of the LDF candidate in the election conducted in ward No.18 of West Eleri Grama Panchayat and when the election was on progress, the first polling officer of the above said booth unnecessarily interfered with the election process and tried to deny the right of the casting of open vote by a disabled voter. Since the applicant was in the booth as Chief agent of the candidate, he interfered with the matter and there was no threat or intimidation as alleged by the de facto complainant. He also did not misbehave but he was only pointing out the mistake of the polling officer in conducting the election. He has no other criminal antecedents. He is willing to cooperate with the investigation. Custodial interrogation of the applicant may not be necessary and therefore he seeks bail.

4. Heard the learned counsel for the applicant and the learned Public Prosecutor.

5. The applicant has no criminal antecedents admittedly.

He was a teacher and is 69 years old. Custody of the applicant for the purpose of investigation may not be required because the allegations are based on the statements given by the Presiding Officer and the Polling officers who were present in the booth. Under such circumstances, there is nothing to be recovered from the applicant for the purpose of investigation.

Hence the application is allowed and the applicant is directed to surrender before the investigating officer within two weeks. In the event of his arrest, after interrogation, he shall be released on bail on execution of a bond for Rs.50,000/- (Rupees fifty thousand only) with two solvent sureties each for the like amount to the satisfaction of the investigating officer and on following conditions:

(i) He shall appear before the investigating officer as and when called for.

(ii) He shall not attempt to influence the witnesses or tamper with evidence.

(iii) He shall not get involved in any other similar crimes during the currency of the bail.

In case of violation of any bail condition, the prosecution is at liberty to apply for cancellation of the bail before the jurisdictional court.