Pradyot Kumar Singhal vs State Of Uttarakhand

Vivek Bharti Sharma, J

Applicant Pradyot Kumar Singhal, who is in jail in F.I.R. No.64 of 2022, under Sections 354 and 376 IPC, Police Station Premnagar, District Dehradun, has sought his release on bail.

Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material available on file.

Learned counsel for the applicant would submit that initially the FIR against the applicant/accused was under Section 354 IPC only as there were mere allegations of inappropriate touching the complainant and the offence was also to outrage the modesty of the complainant; thereafter, she made improvement in her statement, on the basis of which Section 376 of IPC was added at the time of filing of the charge-sheet. He would further submit that during the course of investigation the applicant/accused was not arrested and it was only in the last days of the investigation that the applicant was arrested by the Police on 11.03.2022.

Counsel for the applicant would further submit that the applicant has been falsely implicated in the instant crime to extort money from him. In this regard, applicant’s counsel drew attention of this Court to Annexure-2 to the bail application, which is a complaint moved by the daughter of applicant to the Director General of Police, Dehradun, on dated 16.03.2022, thereby requesting to conduct a discreet investigation from a Senior Police Official. In the complainant, she stated that two persons, namely, Anil Gurung and Abhishek from the side of complainant were blackmailing her father i.e. the applicant/accused and demanded Rs.1.00 Lakh, failing which, these two persons had threatened to face the dire consequences; the daughter of the applicant further stated that these two persons made several calls from Mobile No.7309673972.

Per contra, Mr. Sidhartha Bisht, Counsel for the State and Mr. Pawan Mishra, Counsel for the complainant vehemently oppose the bail application on the ground that the offences are grave enough; however, they admit that initially there was no allegation of rape against the applicant/accused in the FIR.

In the circumspection of facts, without expressing any opinion about merits of the case before the Trial Court, this Court is of the view that this is a case for bail.

The bail application is, accordingly, allowed. Let the applicant be released on furnishing bail bond with two sureties in the amount of ₹ 50,000/- and personal bond of the like amount to the satisfaction of the learned Trial Court.