1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY, BENCH AT AURANGABAD CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO.977 OF 2010 Babu Jagu Rathod & Raju Harisingh Rathod ..Applicants V/s The State of Maharashtra ..Respondent ..... Mr.S.J. Salunke, Advocate for applicants. Mr.P.P. More, APP for respondent. ..... CORAM : SHRIHARI P. DAVARE,J. DATE : 24th March, 2010. PER COURT : 1. Heard Mr.S. J. Salunke, learned Counsel for applicants as well as Mr.P.P. More, learned A.P.P. for respondent. 2. This is an application preferred by applicant nos. 1 and 2 seeking bail in connection with C.R. No.I-43/2009 registered with Hadgaon Police Station, Dist. Nanded for the offences punishable under sections 302, 323, 504, 147, 148, 149 of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 3(1)(x) of the Scheduled 2 Casts and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,1989, since the applicants herein were arrested thereunder on 14th June, 2009 and 11th June, 2009 respectively and they are under judicial custody presently. 3. It appears that the complaint was registered on the report lodged by one Sunil Prabhu Dhage on 11.06.2009 i.e. son of victim namely Prabhu Dhage, wherein allegation has been made that on 10.06.2009 at about 9.30 p.m. he returned to his home after closing his Pan shop, and after taking dinner, he went to the farm to give tiffin to his father along with Sidharth Narayan at about 11:00 p.m. and when they were near the farm, they heard some sound, and therefore, rushed towards it and found that Shivlal Rathod, who was armed with iron rod and accused-Raju Harisingh Rathod, who was armed with knife were assaulting his father namely Prabhu Dhage. It is also alleged that another assailants namely; Babu Gaju Rathod, Bali Gaju Rathod, Parasram Chavan, Shankar Ganesh Rathod, Raju Parasram Chavan were present there and they assaulted his father by sticks, fist blows and leg kicks. It is 3 further alleged that complainant saw two persons having the same name as Raju Harisingh Rathod, who were present at the place of incident, and he further stated that he saw all the assailants in the light of battery. 4. On perusal of the contents of F.I.R. and also the investigation papers, it appears that the role attributed to the applicant no.1-Babu Jagu Rathod is that he was simply present at the place of incident and all the assailants assaulted the victim by stick, fist blows and leg kicks and no specific overt act has been attributed towards applicant no.1 during the occurrence of incident. Hence, considering the said position and also considering the fact that the investigation has been completed and charge sheet has been filed, and since no other criminal antecedent of applicant no.1-Babu Jagu Rathod has been brought on record, the application of applicant no.1-Babu deserves to be considered for grant of bail. 5. As far as the application of another applicant i.e. applicant no.2 namely; Raju Harisingh Rathod is 4 concerned, it is seen from the F.I.R. that the role is attributed to him during the occurrence of incident that he was present at the place of incident and that he was armed with knife and he assaulted the father of complainant by knife. In the said context, the learned Counsel for the applicants invited my attention to the P.M. report, wherein it is categorically stated that the victim succumbed to death due to head injuries and not by stab injury. The learned Counsel also pointed out that the victim sustained six simple injuries, as stated in the column no.17 of the postmortem notes, and injury no.4 is punctured wound-bone deep on the right shin of tibia 1 x 1/2 c.m.. The learned Counsel further urged that the said injury is not on the vital part of the body, which was minor injury and did not lead to the death of victim. The learned Counsel for the applicants also canvased that there is no criminal antecedent of applicant no.2-Raju Harisingh Rathod has been brought on record and urged that he being in custody since last about 9 months, he be enlarged on bail. 6. Considering the role attributed to applicant no.2- 5 Raju Harisingh Rathod, although specific overt act has been shown in the F.I.R. in respect of the applicant no.2 that he was armed with the knife and was assaulting the victim father by the said knife, it is material to note that only one stab injury was found i.e. injury no.4 and which was not on the vital part of the body, and obviously did not lead to the death of the said victim. The said aspect, coupled with other aspects that no criminal antecedent of applicant no.2 has been brought on record as well as the applicant no.2 is in custody since last nine months, his application for grant of bail deserves to be considered. 7. In the light of the matter, the present application preferred by applicant nos.1 and 2 is allowed and it is directed that applicant no.1-Babu Jagu Rathod and applicant no.2-Raju Harisingh Rathod aged 22 years be released on bail in connection with C.R. No.I-43/2009 registered with Police Station, Hadgaon, Dist.Nanded on furnishing surety in the sum of Rs.15,000/- (Rs.Fifteen Thousand) each and on executing P.R. bond in the like amount by each of them 6 on the following terms and conditions. (a) Applicant nos.1 and 2 shall not enter into area namely Bhimai Nagar Navi Aabadi Hadgaon, Tq.Hadgaon till the disposal of the trial. (b) Applicant nos.1 and 2 shall not tamper with prosecution evidence and shall not influence the prosecution witnesses directly or indirectly. (c) Criminal Application no.977/2010 stands disposed of. (d) The above observations are prima facie observations and shall be restricted to this order only and shall not be used in any other matter while deciding it on merits. (SHRIHARI P. DAVARE) JUDGE gas/cri977.10