Telangana High Court: Juvvadi Sridevi, J. granted anticipatory bail subject to completion of investigation and filing of the final report.
The facts of the case are such that the defacto-complainant is daughter in law of the owner of the said house and there are family disputes between de facto complainant and owner of the subject house and during the pendency of O.P. No. 24 of 2019 filed by the defacto complainant, her husband died. Thus, the defacto complainant after the demise of her husband has been harassing her parents-in-law for transfer of property in her name. Thus, the instant criminal petition was filed under Section 438 Criminal Procedure Code i.e. CrPC, to enlarge the petitioners on anticipatory bail in connection with offences registered under Sections 354-B and 506 of Penal Code, 1860 i.e. IPC.
Counsel for petitioners submitted that the petitioners are only tenants of the subject house and the defacto complainant created nuisance in the rented shop of the petitioners and manhandled them. He submitted that the petitioners have not committed any offence and in view of the civil disputes prevailing between the family members of de facto complainant, a false complaint has been registered. Hence, grant of anticipatory bail to the petitioners was prayed.
Counsel for State submitted that on instructions from police it was found out that notice under Section 41- A CrPC was issued to the petitioner/accused 1 and no reply has been given while the investigation is pending. Thus, as they are following the due process of law. Hence, dismissal of the application was sought.
The Court observed that it appears that the accused 2/petitioner 2 was not served with a notice under Section 41-A CrPC and the accused 1/petitioner 1 was only served with the notice.
The Court relied on the guidelines issued by Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar, (2014) 8 SCC 273 and further observed that since the punishment prescribed for the offences alleged against the petitioners is up to seven years and also accused 2 was not issued a notice under Section 41-A CrPC, the respondent – Police are directed to issue notice under Section CrPC to accused 2.
The Court directed the Investigating Officer “to strictly follow the procedure laid down under Section 41-A Cr.P.C. and the guidelines issued.” [A Kaluram v. State of Telangana, 2022 SCC OnLine TS 1135, decided on 19-05-2022]
Arunima Bose, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.
