Appeal filed under Section 14A(2) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act) 1989 allowed, appellants granted anticipatory bail: Karnataka High Court
There is absolutely no mention in the said death note about any of his superiors including the present appellants had ever abused him with caste related insulting words. This was said in the case of Jayraj Acharya vs The State Of Karnataka [CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.527/202] by Justice P.Krishna Bhat in the High Court of Karnataka.
The facts of the case are that the complainants son committed suicide by hanging. It is alleged that he was working in Reliance Digital. It was stated in the compliant that the appellants were mentally harassing him and they were abusing him with reference to his caste in his workplace. A case was registered for the offences punishable under Section 306 read with Section 34 and 3(1)(r)(s), 3(2)(v-a) and 3(2)(v) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989 against the appellants. The appellants have earlier anticipatory bail petition before the Learned Special Judge, Davanagere which, by the impugned order, came to be rejected. Hence, the appellants filed an appeal under Section 14A(2) of 1989 seeking anticipatory bail and calling in question the order dated 30.01.2021 passed by the Learned II Additional District and Sessions Judge.
Learned counsel for the appellants submits contended that the appellants are innocent and they happened to be superior officers of the deceased in the Reliance Digital where deceased was also an employee and the allegations made in the complaint by his mother that these appellants were making caste related abuse to the deceased and that had driven the deceased to commit suicide are entirely baseless and false and therefore, he submits that this appeal is liable to be allowed and appellants are entitled for granting of anticipatory bail
On the other hand, learned HCGA has filed his detailed statement of objections and contended that the offences alleged are extremely serious in nature and the complainant has stated that the appellants were making caste related abuse to the deceased who was a member of Scheduled Caste community which had driven him to commit suicide and therefore, these appellants are not entitled for granting anticipatory bail
After perusing the entire investigation papers submitted by the learned HCGA, the Court opined that “There is absolutely no mention in the said death note about any of his superiors including the present appellants had ever abused him with caste related insulting words. Further the Investigating Officer has recorded the statement of co-employees of the deceased like Aravind Kumar, Basavaraj R, Shivananda B. etc. Perusal of their statement shows that the deceased was short tempered and he was not open to any advise from his superiors. The offence under Section 306 IPC is not exclusively punishable with death or imprisonment for life”.
Furthermore, the Court said that “Taking into consideration, the materials available in the investigation papers, I am of the view that appellants can be granted anticipatory bail inspite of the fact that the offences alleged are under Section 306 read with Section 34 of IPC and 3(1)(r)(s), 3(2)(v-a) and 3(2)(v) of the Act against the appellants”. Hence, the appeal was allowed.