Santanu Mahato v. State Of West Bengal And ANR

06.02.2024 Item No.18 Ct. No. 29 CHC Allowed C.R.M.(A) 378 of 2024 In Re:- An application for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in connection with Hura Police Station Case No. 122 of 2023 dated 25.09.2023 under Sections 448/376/511 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. And In the matter of : Santanu Mahato ...... petitioner Mr. Pawan Kr. Gupta, Mr. Sougata Mitra, Mr. Rameshwar Sinha, Ms. Sofia Nesar, Mr. Santanu Sett, Ms. Soma Chakraborty, Ms. Subhasri Chatterjee ....for the petitioner Mr. Soumik Ganguli ....for the State Affidavit-of-service filed in Court be taken on record. None appears on behalf of the victim.

State is represented.

Petitioner was acquitted of a charge of rape of the de facto complainant, on conclusion of trial of a previous police case. Immediately thereafter, the present police complaint was lodged with the allegation of attempt to rape the de facto complainant.

De facto complainant recorded her statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Content of such

statement remains uncorroborated at this stage as appearing from the materials in the Case Diary.

In such circumstances, we grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner.

Accordingly, we direct that in the event of arrest the petitioner shall be released on bail upon furnishing a bond of Rs.10,000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand only), with two sureties of like amount each, to the satisfaction of the arresting officer and also be subject to the conditions as laid down under Section 438(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and on further condition that the petitioner will report before the Investigating Officer once in a month till the conclusion of investigation and on condition that the petitioner shall appear on every date before the jurisdictional Court on and from the date fixed for appearance of the accused and in default the jurisdictional Court will pass appropriate order to secure the presence of the petitioner in Court including cancelling the anticipatory bail granted without further reference to this Court. This application for anticipatory bail is, thus, allowed. CRM(A) 378 of 2024 is disposed of.

(Debangsu Basak, J.) (Md. Shabbar Rashidi, J.)