Etika Kharia And ORS v. The State Of West Bengal

AD-251 Ct No.01 Jalpaiguri 03.02.2023 TN Calcutta High Court In The Circuit Bench at Jalpaiguri Appellate Side CRM (A) 12 of 2023 In Re: - An application for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure filed on 02.01.2023 in connection with Falakata Police Station Case No. 662 of 2022 dated 25.12.2022 under Sections 417/376/323/324/506/34 IPC, 1860, corresponding to G.R. Case No. 2614 of 2022.

And In the matter of: Etika Kharia and others .... petitioners Mr. Hillol Saha Podder, Ms. Mousumi Das ... for the petitioners Mr. Kallol Acharjee, Mr. Sagnik Sankar Sikdar ... for the State Learned counsel for the petitioners seeks anticipatory bail. Learned counsel for the State opposes the prayer for anticipatory bail.

Upon hearing learned counsel, it transpires that the petitioners were co-accused where the principal allegation was under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code. All the three petitioners are ladies and, as such, in the circumstances, we are inclined to grant anticipatory bail. Accordingly, CRM (A) 12 of 2023 is allowed, thereby granting anticipatory bail to the petitioners on condition that the petitioners shall satisfy the stipulations in Section 438(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

In the event of arrest, the petitioners shall be released on bail upon furnishing individual bonds of Rs.2,000/-, with two sureties of

like amount each, one of whom must be local, to the satisfaction of the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alipurduar. The sureties may be common in respect of all the three petitioners. The petitioners shall not leave the territorial jurisdiction of the concerned police station during the entire period of investigation and shall make themselves available to meet the Investigating Officer and/or for interrogation in the event so required by the Investigating Officer. (Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.) (Rai Chattopadhyay, J.)