Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:40651 Court No. - 65 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 8684 of 2025 Applicant :- Maunish Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Applicant :- Amit Rai Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.,Mohd. Aslam Khan,Mohd. Mateen Khan Hon'ble Krishan Pahal,J. 1. List has been revised. 2. Heard Sri Amit Rai, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri Mohd. Aslam Khan, learned counsel for the informant as well as Sri Varun Pratap Singh, learned A.G.A. for the State and also perused the material placed on record. 3. Applicant seeks bail in Case Crime No. 481 of 2024, under Sections 137(2) & 65(1) of BNS and Sections 3/4(2) of POCSO Act, Police Station - Noorpur, District - Bijnor, during the pendency of trial. 4. As per prosecution story, the applicant is stated to have forcibly taken the victim from her house in the night of 23/24.12.2024 at about 01:00 AM and had committed rape with her and left her near her house at about 02:00 AM. 5. Learned counsel for the applicant has argued that the applicant is absolutely innocent and has been falsely implicated in the present case. He has nothing to do with the said offence as alleged in the FIR. The FIR is delayed by about three days and there is no explanation of the said delay caused. 6. Learned counsel has also stated that the victim is major and as per ossification test report, her age has come out to be between 13 to 18 years, as such, a leverage of two years may be granted to the applicant on upper side. There is no medical evidence to corroborate the prosecution story. 7. Learned counsel has also stated that the consent of the victim can be drawn from the fact that she is stated to have been enticed away by the applicant in the midnight of 23/24.12.2024. 8. Several other submissions have been made on behalf of the applicant to demonstrate the falsity of the allegations made against him. The circumstances which, as per counsel, led to the false implication of the applicant have also been touched upon at length. There is no criminal history of the applicant. The applicant is languishing in jail since 01.01.2025 and he is ready to cooperate with trial. In case, the applicant is released on bail, he will not misuse the liberty of bail. 9. Per contra, learned AGA and learned counsel for the informant have vehemently opposed the bail application on the ground that as per birth certificate of the victim issued by ADO, Noorpur, Bijnor dated 24.08.2016, her date of birth is 07.02.2009. The said document shall be prevalent over the ossification test report. Learned counsel has also stated that the said birth certificate has been prepared on 24.08.2016 which is much before the date of offence and the date of institution of FIR, as such, the victim is minor at the time of offence. However, they could not dispute the fact that the applicant has no criminal history. 10. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, submissions made by learned counsel for the parties, the delay in lodging the FIR and no medical corroboration of the incident and also taking into consideration the settled law of the Supreme Court passed in Satender Kumar Antil vs. Central Bureau of Investigation and Ors., 2022 INSC 690 and Manish Sisodia vs. Directorate of Enforcement, 2024 INSC 595 and without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, the Court is of the view that the applicant has made out a case for bail. The bail application is allowed. 11. Let the applicant- Maunish, who is involved in aforementioned case crime be released on bail on his furnishing a personal bond and two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court concerned subject to following conditions. Further, before issuing the release order, the sureties be verified. i) The applicant will not tamper with the evidence during trial. ii) The applicant will not pressurise/intimidate with the prosecution witnesses. iii) The applicant will appear before the trial court on the date fixed. 12. In case of breach of any of the above conditions, it shall be a ground for cancellation of bail. 13. It is made clear that observations made in granting bail to the applicant shall not in any way affect the learned trial Judge in forming his independent opinion based on the testimony of the witnesses. Order Date:- 20.3.2025 Siddhant (Justice Krishan Pahal) Digitally signed by :- SIDDHANT SAHU High Court of Judicature at Allahabad