Kerela High Court: The Bench of N. Anil Kumar, J., allowed the bail application of a seventy years old man, filed under Section 439 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
In the present case, the applicant was alleged of committing unnatural sexual intercourse with a boy aged 13 years and was charged under Section 377 of Penal Code, 1860 and Section 3(a) read with Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. The victim filed the complaint belatedly on 21-03-2019 and the accused was arrested on 22-03-2019, since then he had been in judicial custody. Applicant had asked for the bail on the grounds of his old age and suffering from various illness including cardiac ailments which required regular medication and medical consultation. He also pointed towards the inordinate delay in reporting the matter to the police by the victim indicating the falsity of the allegations, as ground for bail.
The Court in its order granting the bail said, “In view of the fact that the petitioner is a 70-year-old senior citizen and that no purpose will be served by further detaining the applicant in judicial custody, it is just and proper to grant bail to the petitioner after imposing stringent conditions. Further, the petitioner has been in judicial custody since 22-03-2019.” The Court also put several conditions while granting bail such as, the applicant would be executing a bond for Rs 50,000 along with two solvent sureties, he would be appearing before investigating officer on all Mondays and Thursdays on scheduled time for the next three months, he would not be contacting the victim or his family members and would not intimidate the prosecution witnesses and he would surrender his passport and not leave the territory of State without the Court’s permission. In case if he fails to comply with any of these conditions, the Court would be free to cancel his bail order.[Eni v. State of Kerela, 2019 SCC OnLine Ker 1407, Order dated 03-05-2019]
