Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:66158 Court No. - 65 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 12942 of 2025 Applicant :- Hempal Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Applicant :- Mayank Yadav,Vivek Kumar Singh Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.,Santosh Kumar Pandey Hon'ble Krishan Pahal,J. 1. List has been revised. 2. Heard Sri Mayank Yadav, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri Shilesh Kumar Yadav, Advocate Sri Santosh Kumar Pandey, learned counsel for the informant as well as Sri R.P. Patel, learned State Law Officer and also perused the material placed on record. 3. Applicant seeks bail in Case Crime No. 311 of 2024, under Sections 137(2), 64(1) of BNS and Sections 3/4 of POCSO Act, Police Station - Dhanari, District - Sambhal, during the pendency of trial. 4. As per prosecution story, the applicant is stated to have enticed away the minor daughter of the informant in collusion with one Anil on 30.10.2024 at about 11:00 PM. The victim is stated to have taken away certain ornaments and Rs.1.5 lakhs along with her. 5. Learned counsel for the applicant has argued that the applicant is absolutely innocent and has been falsely implicated in the present case. The FIR is delayed by about one day and there is no explanation of the said delay caused. 6. Learned counsel has also stated that the victim is the consenting party as is but evident from the fact that the victim had taken away Rs.1.5 lakhs and certain ornaments from her house. Her consent can also be drawn from her statement recorded u/s 183 BNSS. The victim by her looks seems to be major although she herself has stated her age to be 17 years, as such, a leverage of two years may be granted to the applicant on upper side in light of law laid down by Supreme Court. There is no medical corroboration of the incident. 7. Learned counsel has further stated that there is no criminal history of the applicant. The applicant is languishing in jail since 26.11.2024 and he is ready to cooperate with trial. In case, the applicant is released on bail, he will not misuse the liberty of bail. 8. Per contra, learned State Law Officer and learned counsel for the informant have vehemently opposed the bail application on the ground that as per transfer certificate of class 5, the age of the victim was 15 years 7 months and 28 days only as her date of birth is 02.03.2009, as such, her consent, if any, has no significance in the eyes of law. However, they could not dispute the fact that the applicant has no criminal history. 9. The said document i.e. Class 5 school transfer certificate of the victim cannot be taken into consideration in view of the judgement of Supreme Court passed in P. Yuvaprakash vs State Rep. by Inspector of Police, AIR 2023 SC 3525, whereby it has observed that in the absence of records relating to the birth of the victim, no other documents except the Matriculation or equivalent certificate from the concerned examination board or certificate by a corporation, municipal authority or a Panchayat can be relied upon to ascertain the age of the victim. 10. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, submissions made by learned counsel for the parties and the fact of delay of one day in lodging the FIR coupled by the fact that the victim had taken away Rs. 1.5 lakhs and certain ornaments along with her, I find it a fit case to release the applicant on bail. The bail application is allowed. 11. Let the applicant- Hempal, 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:- 29.4.2025 Siddhant (Justice Krishan Pahal) Digitally signed by :- SIDDHANT SAHU High Court of Judicature at Allahabad