ALAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein have been arrayed as accused Nos.1 and 2 among the two accused in the instant Annexure-A Crime N0.790/2019 of Thrissur West Police Station, which has been registered for offences punishable under Sections 341 , 447 , 294(b) , 324 , 354 , and 34 of IPC and Sections 3(1)(s) and 3(2)(va) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act , 1989 as amended. The crime has been so registered on the basis of the First Information Statement given by the lady de facto complainant on 13.11.2019 at about 9.20 p.m in respect of the alleged incidents which happened on 10.11.2019 at about 8 p.m. in the night.

(2.) The prosecution case in short is that the accused person, the lady de facto complainant and her family members are living in the immediate neighbourhood and that on 10.11.2109 at about 8 p.m., the petitioners had burst some crackers in connection with the celebration of the local church festival, which was objected to by the de facto complainant and her family members and enraging that, the petitioners had barged into their residence and assaulted them, abused them and that they had also insulted the lady de facto complainant' husband by calling out their caste name. The lady de facto complainant and her husband belong to Scheduled Caste etc. and that thereby the have committed the above said offences.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioners would point out that the above said allegations are false and baseless and that to the best of the knowledge of the petitioners, the lady de facto complainant and her husband had converted into Christianity and therefore, they had lost their status of Scheduled Caste and the fact that they are now active members of the local church parish is evident from Annexure-B record maintained by the Parish priest. Further that the allegations are completely false and that at around the same time on the same day, counter case as per Annexure-C Crime No.798/2019 of Thrissur West Police Station has been registered on the basis of the F.I.Statement given by the 1 st petitioner herein on 13.11.2019 at about 9.50 p.m. for offences punishable under Sections 447 , 341 , 323 , 324 , 354 , 392 and 34 of the IPC, in respect of the alleged incident which happened on 10.11.2019 at about 7.45 p.m. The allegations in Annexure-C counter case is to the effect that after the 1 st petitioner and his friends had burst crackers for celebrating church festival, the de facto complainant and her husband had enraged and the lady de facto complainant and her husband had barged into the residence of the petitioners and had assaulted them and have committed the above said offences. It is pointed out that Annexure-A crime has been vitiated by mala fides and extraneous considerations and therefore, not even a prima case of substance disclosing offences as per SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is disclosed in this case and therefore, the bar under Sections 18 and 18A of the said Act will not apply and so this Court is empowered to consider the anticipatory bail of the petitioners, on merits.