.

ORDER :

1. Leave granted.

2. The appellant is the mother of the victim who is a 12 years old girl child.

3. The appellant is aggrieved by the Order dated 25-7-2022 passed by the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam, whereby Respondent No.1 has been granted protection of anticipatory bail in Crime No.442 of 2022 dated 27-5-2022 registered at Police Station Meenangadi District Wayanad under Sections 354A(1)(i),(ii) & (iv), 354 A-(2) and 354-A(3) of the Indian Penal Code read with Sections 7, 8, 9 and 11 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (for short, ‘POCSO Act’). The occurrence allegedly took place on 14-12-2021 when Respondent No.1 is alleged to have sexually assaulted his 12 years old niece. The allegations are that Respondent No.1 asked the victim to sit on his lap and thereafter he hugged her and kissed her on the cheeks and tried to kiss her on her lips. He further attempted to disrobe the victim and made lewd comments. The victim was an excellent student giving good performances both in curricular and co-curricular activities but the incident traumatized her to an extent that she slumped down in her course and performance. She was taken to counselling but did not open up. The victim was taken for second counselling session and at that time, she disclosed the unfortunate incident, she had faced from her maternal uncle, namely, Respondent No.1. Thereafter, the subject First Information Report was immediately registered; medical examination was conducted and Statement of the victim under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 was recorded. Apprehending his arrest, Respondent No.1 approached the learned Sessions Court but was declined anticipatory bail.

4. Thereafter, Respondent No.1 approached the High Court and vide impugned Order dated 25-7-2022, the said Court granted him conditional anticipatory bail on the following terms:

“12. Accordingly, I allow this application subject to the following conditions:

(a) Petitioner shall appear before the Investigating Officer from 9 am to 6 pm on 29.07.2022, 30.07.2022, 01.08.2022 and 02.08.2022 and shall subject himself to interrogation.

(b) If after interrogation, the investigating Officer proposes to arrest the petitioner, then he shall be released on bail on him executing a bond for Rs.50,000/- (Rupees fifty thousand only) with two solvent sureties each for the like sum before the Investigating Officer.

(c) Petitioner shall appear before the Investigating Officer as and when required and shall also cooperate with the investigation.

(d) Petitioner shall not intimidate or attempt to influence the witnesses; nor shall he tamper with the evidence or

xx xx xx xx;

(e) xxxxxxxx

(f) xx xx xx”

5. The mother of the victim child being aggrieved has approached this Court.

6. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and gone through the record.

7. The Special Judge, Sessions Division, Kalpetta, Wayanad, while declining to grant anticipatory bail as prayed for by the respondent No 1 herein (original accused) vide order dated of 4th July, 2022 passed in Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 512 of 2022, observed as under :

“7. A careful perusal of the case diary shows that there are sufficient reasons to suspect that the sexual abuse as alleged by the prosecution has taken place at the instance of the petitioner. The perpetrator is none other than a close relative of the victim, i.e., her maternal uncle. Statements of the victim given to the police as well as to the learned Magistrate disclose the fact that the incident took place in the house of the petitioner while the victim and her mother paid a visit and stayed there for some days. The statements also show that the incident occurred in the bedroom of the petitioner while none else was there. Bedroom of the petitioner is situated up the stairs of the house. All other inmates were in the down stair portion of the house at the relevant time. Statements also show that the petitioner attempted to disrobe the victim, made her