Apex Court Grants Bail To Man Accused Of Throwing Acid On Female Govt Servant As Acid Fell Only On Her Mobile Phone
The Supreme Court has granted bail to an accused who had allegedly thrown acid on a Government Servant, posted as Lekhpal with the intention to kill her. The bench while granting bail was of the opinion that the fact that there was no injury on the victim, and only two drops were found on her mobile phone was a redeeming feature in support of the accused. However, the bench also took note of the fact that it was a second incident in which a complaint was made against the appellant (accused) herein.
It is pertinent to note that in the matter the Allahabad High Court in the impugned order had taken note of the CCTV footage collected during the investigation where the accused was seen chasing the victim and even after some altercation, he continued to chase and threaten her and was also seen throwing certain liquid on her. During the course of trial in the FIR dated September 7, 2021 for offences 354A, 354D , 353, 283, 504, 506 IPC, the accused allegedly made another attempt to cause irreparable loss and injury to the victim for which charge-sheet was submitted under Section 326B, 354 and 506 IPC.
Accordingly, while granting bail, a bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia observed, “The only redeeming feature in the case of the appellant is that fortunately there was no acid injury on the complainant but only two drops of acid were found on her mobile phone. Learned counsel for the appellant submits that these are false allegations arising out of rivalry. The fact however, remains that this is a second incident of which the complaint has been made. We are informed that 4 out of 7 witnesses have been examined and thus all private witnesses have been examined. The appellant has been in custody for more than a year”.
Advocate Himani Bhatnagar appeared for the petitioner, AOR Vishnu Shankar Jain appeared for the respondent.
The victim had filed an FIR alleging that the appellant had forcibly dragged her to an area, and had subsequently thrown acid on her when she retaliated.
Before the High Court, the appellant while contending that he was in fact innocent and was falsely implicated in the case, argued that in the injury report of the victim, no injury was found on her body. Further laid contended that as no drop of acid was found on the body of the victim, therefore, no offence under Section 326-B I.P.C. is made out against him. Further that he was languishing in jail since September, 2022.
The High Court in the order while rejecting the bail application had observed, “Considering the overall facts and circumstances of the case as well as keeping in view the submissions advanced on behalf of parties, gravity of offence, role assigned to applicant, severity of punishment and also considering the repeated offence of the applicant against the victim, who is a government servant, I do not find any good ground to release the applicant on bail”.
However, the Apex Court while granting bail imposed certain restrictions on the appellant where he is restricted from entering Agra where the complainant resides till the Court proceedings conclude, and not come within the vicinity of the complainant in any manner.
Cause Title: Naresh Kumar @ Dinesh Kumar Kasinwar v. The State Of Uttar Pradesh
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