VANITA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned High Court Government Pleader for the respondent - State. Perused the material available on record.

(2.) The petitioner has filed this petition under Sec. 438 of Cr.P.C. praying to grant anticipatory bail in her favour in Crime No.8/2023 of CEN Crime police station, Kalaburagi City, registered for the offence punishable under Sec. 67(B) of the Information Technology Act, 2008.

(3.) Brief facts of the prosecution case are that, on 8/2/2023 at about 6.30 p.m., the complainant - Sri Suryakanth S. Jewargi, Police Inspector, received a CD with report from CID Department (NCRB), which discloses that as per the directions issued by the Supreme Court, the Central Government has opened NCRB and NCMEC portals pursuant to sexual assault against women and children. In respect of Karnataka State, a secret information was received from the NCRB portal by the service provider, which reveals that on 10/8/2021 at about 11.51 p.m. from the facebook account of one Bharath (bharath.patil.9026) USR ID and URL https://www.facebook.com/bharath/patil.9026), a video of about 7 minutes 25 seconds of a sexual act between a minor girl and minor boy was uploaded and upon conducting preliminary enquiry, it was confirmed that the said obscene act of minor children was uploaded by the present petitioner. Therefore, based upon the said report, the respondent - police registered a case against the petitioner in Crime No.8/2023 for the aforesaid offence and thus, apprehending her arrest at the hands of the respondent - police, the petitioner had preferred anticipatory bail application before the III Additional District and Sessions Judge, Kalaburagi in Crl.Misc.No.965/2023 and the same was rejected on 23/6/2023. Thus, the petitioner has filed the present petition.