Pre-arrest bail granted due to lack of evidence connecting applicant to the alleged crime.

ORDER

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

2. The applicant is the accused No.3 in Crime No.1068/2025 of Kollengode Police Station, Palakkad District. The offences alleged are punishable under Sections 316(2) and

318(4) r/w Section 3 (5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 .

3. The prosecution case, in short, is that on

05.07.2024, accused No.1 called the defacto complainant over phone and promised to help him to pay the tax on 8 acres of land at Ayyajayinahundi in Mysore. Accused No.2 and the applicant together introduced themselves as Village Officer and Sub Registrar respectively, convinced the defacto complainant and received an amount of 18,25,000/- from the defacto complainant to the account of accused No.1 through bank transfer. After that, they did not pay land tax nor returned the money, and thereby cheated the defacto complainant. Thus, the applicant committed the above-mentioned offences.

4. I have heard Sri.K.R. Vinod, the learned counsel for the applicant and Smt.Sreeja V., the learned Senior Public Prosecutor. Perused the case diary.

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

6. I went through the FIS. There are no serious allegations against the applicant. Admittedly, the money was transferred to the account of the accused No.1. There is nothing on record to show that the defacto complainant has even met the applicant. The applicant has no criminal antecedents. Considering the allegations made against the applicant, his custodial interrogation seems unnecessary. For these reasons, I find this to be an appropriate case to grant pre-

arrest bail to the applicant.

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

(i) The applicant shall be released on bail in the event of his arrest on executing a bond for Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One lakh only) 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 applicant shall fully cooperate with the investigation, including subjecting himself to the deemed police custody for discovery, if any, as and when demanded.

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

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

(v) The applicant 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 applicant 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/-