ANANDU Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein has been arrayed as accused No. 3 among the 6 accused in the instant Annexure-1 Crime No. 1594/2019 of Kadakkal Police Station, Kollam which has been initially registered for offences punishable under Secs. 143, 147, 148, 149, 451, 323, 324 and 427 of the Indian Penal Code on the basis of the FI Statement given by the defacto complainant on 11/09/2019 at about 4.40 pm in respect of the alleged incident which happened on the previous day (10/09/2019) at about 7 pm. Initially, all the abovesaid offences initially alleged in the FIR are bailable offences, later the Police after investigation, has newly added the offence as per Sec. 354 of the IPC, which alone is now the only non-bailable offence in this case.

(2.) The prosecution case in short, is that on 10/09/2019 at about 7 pm, the petitioners and the other accused persons had raised an altercation with the defacto complainant, as his bus was parked outside the road, which was not to the liking of accused persons and that they had assaulted the defacto complainant, who had ran away to his house and the accused persons had followed him. When the defacto complainant's mother and grand mother intervened, the accused persons had assaulted them and the accused persons had also caused damage to the bus to the tune of Rs.15,000/-.

(3.) The counsel for the petitioner (A3) would point out that all the offences initially alleged against the accused persons are bailable offences. It is only to entrap the petitioners falsely in a bailable offence that the defacto complainant has subsequently made additional allegations, on the basis of which the Police has newly added the offence as per Sec.354 of the IPC, which is a non-bailable offence. It is submitted by the petitioner's counsel that reading of the FI statement would make it clear that no serious allegations of the offence as per Sec.354 of the IPC (violating the modesty of the woman) are made out in the instant case. That even, according to the prosecution case, the assault made by the accused persons was on the defacto complainant, who is a male and later, when he fled away to his house, the accused persons had followed him and when his mother and grandmother had intervened, they had assaulted them also. That the Police has initially rightly not included the offence as per Sec.354 of the IPC in the instant case and the new inclusion of the said offence is not right and proper. Further, it is pointed out that the accused 1, 4 and 5 had already been granted anticipatory bail in this case as per order dated 01.10.2019 in B.A. No. 6835/2019.