ABHIJEET Vs. THE STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has filed this petition under section 438 of Cr.P.C., 1973 seeking is enlargement on anticipatory bail in crime No.128/2018 of the respondent-police station for the offences punishable under Sections 341, 324, 307 of IPC and section 3(2)(v) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

(2.) The summary of the case of the prosecution is that the complainant and his friend one Sri. Prasad Sunkappa Kallawaddar and Girish F.Kuri and the accused Abhijeet D.Jadhav who is known to the complainant is a Marathi. The said accused claiming himself to be a Marathi was undermining the Kannadigas, more particularly, the complainant and his friend. That apart, on 17.05.2018 in the morning at 8:30 a.m. while the complainant Girish F.Kuri and his friend Prasad were returning to their home on a motorcycle carrying the provisions with them, the accused-Abhijeet overtook them in his motorcycle. In the process, he tried to dash the motorcycle on which the complainant was going. The said accused stopped the motorcycle ahead of the complainant's motorcycle and stopped them on the way. With an intention to kill them, he assaulted the complainant with a knife on his chest and head. When the pillion Prasad intervened to the rescue of the assaulted complainant, the accused assaulted him too. When both the injured started hue and cry, the accused ran away from the place. The people who gathered shifted the injured to the hospital. The complainant-police registered the said complaint in crime No. 128/2018 against the present petitioner for the offences punishable under Sections 341, 324, 307 of IPC and section 3(2)(v) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner while reiterating the contention taken up in the petition submitted that, even if the contents of the complaint are taken to be true, no where it is whispered that it is based on the caste or the religion, the alleged altercation has taken place. The only allegation is of two linguistic persons having some altercation between them. Thus, under no stretch of imagination, it can be believed that without any provocation or any reasons, the accused has taken the knife and attempted to cause the death of the complainant. As such, if at all, anything has happened, it is a minor altercation or some exchange of words, which has been exaggerated abnormally in the complaint attracting Section 307 of IPC.