The court determined that pre-arrest bail was justified due to insufficient evidence for custodial interrogation and the applicants' cooperation with the investigation.

ORDER

This application is filed under Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita , 2023 (for short, BNSS ), seeking pre-arrest bail.

2. The applicants are the accused Nos.1 and 2 in Crime No.724/2025 of Town North Police Station, Palakkad District. The offences alleged are punishable under Sections

406, 409 and 420 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code .

3. The prosecution case, in short, is that during the period from 30.06.2023 to 31.10.2023, the applicant No.1, who was then functioning as a Clerk in the Kerala Agricultural Workers Welfare Fund Board, Palakkad, manipulated the list of beneficiaries entitled to financial benefits on attaining 60 years of age and substituted the bank account numbers of himself and his wife (applicant No.2) in place of the actual agricultural workers, misappropriated Rs.13,61,233/- and thereby committed the aforementioned offences.

4. I have heard Smt.K.Rajeswary, the learned counsel for the applicants and Sri.K.A.Noushad, the learned Senior Public Prosecutor. Perused the case diary.

5. The learned counsel for the applicants submitted that the applicants are innocent and have been falsely implicated in the above crime. The counsel further submitted that no materials are on record to connect the applicants with the alleged crime; hence, they are entitled to get bail. The learned Senior Public Prosecutor, on the other hand, submitted that the alleged incident occurred as a part of the intentional criminal acts of the applicants, and if they are released on bail at this stage, it will affect the course of the investigation.

6. The applicant No.1 is a senior citizen aged 62 years. It is submitted that he is suffering from various illness as well. The applicant No.2 is the wife of the applicant No.1, aged 58 years. There is no specific allegation against the applicant No.2. The statement of the defacto complainant reported by the Investigating Officer would show that the applicant No.1 has already returned Rs.12,65,608/- to the Board. Considering the allegations made against the applicants, their custodial interrogation seems unnecessary. For these reasons, I find this to be an appropriate case to grant pre-arrest bail to the applicants.

In the result, the application is allowed on the following conditions:-

(i) The applicants shall be released on bail in the event of their arrest on executing a bond for Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One lakh only) each with two solvent sureties for the like sum each to the satisfaction of the arresting officer/investigating officer, as the case may be.

(ii) The applicants shall fully cooperate with the investigation, including subjecting themselves to the deemed police custody for discovery, if any, as and when demanded.

(iii) The applicants shall appear before the investigating officer between 10.00 a.m. and 11.00 a.m. every Saturday until further orders. They shall also appear before the investigating officer as and when required.

(iv) The applicants shall not commit any offence of a like nature while on bail.

(v) The applicants shall not attempt to contact any of the prosecution witnesses, directly or through any other person, or in any other way try to tamper with the evidence or influence any witnesses or other persons related to the investigation.

(vi) The applicants shall not leave the State of Kerala without the permission of the trial Court.

(vii) The application, if any, for deletion/modification of bail conditions or cancellation of bail on the grounds of violating the bail conditions shall be filed at the jurisdictional court.

Sd/-

DR. KAUSER EDAPPAGATH JUDGE Mn APPENDIX OF BAIL APPL. NO. 14466 OF 2025 PETITIONER ANNEXURES Annexure-1 TRUE COPY OF THE FIR IN CRIME NO.724/2025 DATED 16/06/2025 Annexure-2 A TRUE COPY OF THE GOVERNMENT ORDER DATED 25.10.2023 Annexure-3