RITA REENI AND ORS. Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners herein have been shown as accused in the additional charge sheet filed by the respondent police relating to Crime No. 157/13. The said additional charge sheet is filed after conducting further investigation under Sec. 173(8), Cr.P.C. The offences alleged against all the petitioners relating to the above crime number are punishable under Ss. 302, 201, 120B read with Sec. 149, I.P.C.

(2.) Initially charge sheet came to be filed against five accused persons and the said case is already committed to the sessions court. Out of them, two accused are absconding and three of them are in judicial custody. These petitioners are apprehending arrest at the hands of the respondent police relating to Crime No. 157/13 in the light of non -bailable warrant issued against them in C.C.27574/15. Hence separate bail applications are filed under Sec. 438, Cr.P.C.

(3.) Petitioner in Crl.P.220/16, Smt. Rita Reeni is stated to be an editor and publisher of a Kannada magazine called Janapara Mathu Kathe since 2005. This magazine is stated to be a progressive and secular magazine representing the needs of Catholic Christian community in India. It is being published since 1995. She is stated to have held a doctorate in English literature from Prescot University, Scotland, and she is engaged in journalism for quite a long time. She is stated to be a responsible and respectable journalist, and she is stated to have been falsely implicated as 11th accused for the above offences. She has undertaken to obey any condition which may be imposed on her. She has approached this court in the light of rejection of her application under Sec. 438, Cr.P.C. passed by the Principal Sessions Judge, Bengaluru, on 29.12.2015 passed in Crl.Misc. Nos. 7798 and 7837/15.