Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Sukanta Bhandari vs Unknown on 13 March, 2025
13.03.2025
Item no.19.
Court No.29.
S. De
(Allowed)
CRM (DB) No. 421 of 2025
In Re: An application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure corresponding to Section 483 of the
Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 in connection with
Kotwali Police Station Case No. 462 of 2023 dated
14.06.2023 under Sections
363/366A/370(5)/370A/372/373/34 of the Indian Penal Code
& Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences
Act (POCSO), 2012 and Sections 3/4/5/6/7/9 of the Immoral
Traffic (Prevention) Act.
And
In the matter of : Sukanta Bhandari. ......Petitioner.
Mr. Soumyajit Das Mahapatra,
Ms. Madhurai Sinha,
Mr. Ranabeer Halder, ......for the Petitioner.
Ms. Minoti Gomes,
Mr. Asif Dewan, ......for the State
Dictated by Arijit Banerjee, J.
1. Service report filed by the State be kept with the records. In
spite of service, nobody appears for the de facto
complaint/victim.
2. The petitioner claims parity citing an order dated January 20,
2025, passed in CRM (DB) 3814 of 2024, whereby, a co-accused
person by the name of Koushik Maity was enlarged on bail. The
petitioner says that he stands on the same footing as Koushik
Maity.
3. Learned State advocate, while opposing the prayer for bail, in
her usual fairness, does not dispute that the petitioner is
similarly circumstanced as Koushik Maity.
2
4. Hence, on the ground of parity, we allow the petitioner’s prayer
for bail.
5. Accordingly, we direct that the petitioner, namely, Sukanta
Bhandari shall be released on bail upon furnishing a bond of
Rs.10,000/-, with two sureties of like amount each, one of whom
must be local to the satisfaction of the learned Judge, Special
Court (under POCSO Act), Paschim Medinipur and on further
condition that the petitioner shall appear before the Trial Court
on each and every date of substantive hearing subject to the
provisions of Section 317 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,
1973/Section 355 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita,
2023, until further orders and shall not intimidate the witnesses
and/or tamper with evidence in any manner whatsoever.
6. In the event the petitioner fails to adhere to any of the conditions
stipulated above without justifiable cause, the trial court shall
be at liberty to cancel the petitioner’s bail in accordance with law
without further reference to this court.
7. The application for bail is, accordingly, allowed.
8. All parties shall act in terms of server copy of the order
downloaded from the official website of this Court.
(Om Narayan Rai, J.) (Arijit Banerjee, J.)