JUDGMENT

Dated this the 10^th day of February, 2026 This criminal appeal has been filed 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 29.11.2025 in Crl.M.C. No.48/2025 on the files of the Special Court for SC/ST (POA) Act cases, Nedumangad, whereby the learned Special Judge dismissed the anticipatory bail plea at the instance of the appellants, who are accused Nos.1 to 4 in Crime No.1072/2025 of Vattiyoorkavu Police Station, Thiruvananthapuram.

2. Heard the learned counsel for the appellants, the learned Public Prosecutor and the learned counsel appearing for respondent Nos.4 to 6, who are the defacto complainant/injured in this case, in detail. Perused the verdict under challenge and the case diary placed by the learned Public Prosecutor.

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

4. The prosecution allegation is that, at about 07.00 p.m. on 13.11.2025, Anilkumar (A1), Praveen (A2), Prasanth (A3), Mahesh (A4) and Sudhi (A5), who do not belong to either Scheduled Caste or Sche