Abdul Rahman vs State Of Kerala

Shircy V, J

Application for regular bail submitted by the petitioner in Crime No. 740 of 2016 of Mannarkkad Police Station, Palakkad District registered for the offences punishable under Sections 466 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code.

The prosecution allegation in brief is as follows:

This petitioner has submitted an application for building permit to construct a building at Kumaramputhur Panchayath on 06.10.2016. Along with his application, he had produced a forged possession certificate with No.1597/2016 dated 28.09.2016. On verification, the Village Officer found that no such possession certificate was issued from that office and the signature seen affixed in the document was also a forged one. A report has been submitted by the Village Officer to that effect and thus this crime has been registered.

The petitioner has been in custody since 11.09.2021.

The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that in fact he is the owner in possession of 7.38 cents of land in Kumaramputhur village. As he wanted to construct a building, he has applied for permit with the possession certificate issued to him which is Annexure III. Permit was issued to him, so, he constructed building in the property. Thereafter, he again approached the Panchayath to assign number to the newly constructed building with the possession certificate obtained from the Village office. But number has not been assigned to the building. Thereafter, he approached this court with a writ petition. As per an interim order in the writ petition, number has been assigned to his building and thereafter he came to know that he has been booked in this case alleging that he has forged the document and produced it as a genuine one before the Panchayath office. In fact, he has not committed any offence as alleged.

The learned Public Prosecutor submits that though in the FIR it is stated that, when he had applied for permit, he had produced a forged certificate, but on investigation it was revealed that the forged document was produced by him when he applied  for  building  number  for  the  newly  constructed building in his property. A report has been filed to that effect. Now the investigation of the case is over and charge sheet has been filed before the jurisdictional Magistrate Court.

Now the investigation of the case is over and charge sheet has been submitted by the investigating agency. Hence, further detention of this petitioner is absolutely unnecessary.

Therefore, this application is allowed subject to the following conditions:

(i) The petitioner shall be released on bail on his executing a bond for a sum of Rs.50,000/- (Rupees Fifty thousand only) with two solvent sureties for the like sum each to the satisfaction of the court having jurisdiction.

(ii) The petitioner shall appear before the Investigating Officer for interrogation as and when required by him, in writing.

(iii) The petitioner shall not directly or indirectly, make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the court or to any police officer or tamper with the evidence.

(iv) The petitioner shall not commit any offence while on bail.

In case of violation of any of the above conditions, the learned Magistrate is empowered to cancel the bail in accordance with the law.