The court determined that continued incarceration is unwarranted pending trial, allowing bail under specified conditions.

O R D E R

Leave granted.

The appellant, Mangalam Soni, seeks bail in relation to Crime/First Information Report (FIR) No. 11/2025 dated 08.02.2025 registered with Police Station – Ghumka, District – Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, for the offence(s) punishable under Sections 3 17 (2), 317(4), 317(5), 111 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita , 2023.

Upon perusing the counter affidavit filed by the State of Chhattisgarh, we are not inclined to accept its plea that the continued incarceration of the appellant is warranted at this stage. It is an admitted fact that charges have already been framed but the trial is yet to commence. The appellant is in prison since 08.02.2025. Custodial interrogation of the appellant would obviously not be warranted or necessary at this stage.

The present appeal is, therefore, allowed; setting aside the Signature Not Verified impugned judgment/order passed by the High Court.

Digitally signed by Deepak Guglani Date: 2025.07.25

17:08:09 IST Reason:

The appellant shall be released on bail in connection with the aforestated FIR, on such appropriate terms and conditions as may be fixed by the trial court.

We clarify that we have not made any observations/comments on the merits of the case and any observation made in this order is meant only for the limited purposes of this bail application.

Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of.

......................J.

(SANJAY KUMAR)

......................J.

(SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA)

NEW DELHI;

JULY 25, 2025.

ITEM NO.7 COURT NO.14 SECTION II-C S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 9233/2025 [Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 20-05-2025 in MCRC No. 1868/2025 passed by the High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur]

MANGALAM SONI Petitioner(s)

VERSUS STATE OF CHHATTISGARH Respondent(s)

Date : 25-07-2025 This matter was called on for hearing today.

CORAM :

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA For Petitioner(s) :

Mr. Sumit Singh, Adv.

Mr. Gaurav Choudhary, AOR For Respondent(s) :

Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Standing Counsel/Adv.

Mr. Ravinder Kumar Yadav, AOR Ms. Kritika Yadav, Adv.

UPON hearing the counsel, the Court made the following

O R D E R

Leave granted.

In terms of the signed order, the appeal is allowed; setting aside the impugned judgment/order passed by the High Court.

The appellant shall be released on bail in connection with Crime/First Information Report (FIR) No. 11/2025 dated 08.02.2025 registered with Police Station – Ghumka, District – Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, for the offence(s) punishable under Sections 3 17 (2), 317(4), 317(5), 111 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita , 2023, on such appropriate terms and conditions as may be fixed by the trial court.

Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of.