JUDGMENT :

A. BADHARUDEEN, J.

Sri. Baby K.P., who is the sole accused in Crime No.794/2025 of Binanipuram Police Station, Ernakulam, has filed this criminal appeal under Section 14A of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 as amended in 2018 [hereinafter referred to as 'SC/ST POA Act, 2018' for short], challenging order dated 09.01.2026 in Crl.M.P. No.2402/2025 on the files of the Special Court for SC/ST (POA) Act cases, Ernakulam, whereby the learned Special Judge dismissed the anticipatory bail plea at the instance of the appellant.

2. Heard the learned counsel for the appellant, the learned Public Prosecutor and the learned counsel appearing for the defacto complainant, in detail. Perused the verdict under challenge, the case diary placed by the learned Public Prosecutor and also gone through decisions cited by the learned counsel for the appellant and the learned counsel for the defacto complainant.

3. Parties in this appeal shall be referred as ‘accused’ and ‘defacto complainant’, hereafter.

4. In a nutshell, the allegation of the prosecution is that, the accused, who does not belong to either Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community,