20.01.2025 Item no. 17. Court No.29. AB (Allowed) CRM (DB) 3871 of 2024 In Re: An Application for Bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973/Under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 in connection with New Town Police Station Case No.156 of 2022 Dated 29.06.2022 under Sections 366A/370/370A/372/109/120B/34 of the Indian Penal Code read with Sections 3/4/5/6/9 of the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 and Sections 4/6/16/17 of the POCSO Act and Section 81 of the Juvenile Justice Act And In the matter of : Pravat Mukherjee @ Bappa & Anr. ……Petitioners. Mr. Anshuman Chakraborty, Mr. S. S. Saha ……for the Petitioners. Mr. Saryati Dutta, Mr. Akash Ganguly ……for the State. Ms. Jhuma Sen, Ms. Arpita De ……for the Victim Girl. Dictated by Apurba Sinha Ray, J. 1. The petitioners claim that they are in custody for about two years and six months. The prosecution has failed to comply with the direction of this Court to complete the trial of this case within six months from 09.02.2024. There is no chance of an early conclusion of the trial since only 6 out of 18 charge sheet named witnesses have been examined. 2. Learned Counsel for the victim girl has raised strong objection to the prayer of bail. According to her, there are sufficient incriminating materials against the Signed By : APURBA BANDYOPADHYAY High Court of Calcutta 20 th of January 2025 05:52:29 PM 2 present petitioners as per the deposition of one minor victim girl. 3. Learned Advocate for the State also opposes the prayer for bail. He has drawn our attention to the order dated 22.07.2024 passed by a Coordinate Bench directing the prosecution to conclude the trial of the case within one year. That time has not yet elapsed and as such, the prosecution has opportunity to complete the trial within the time limit prescribed in the order dated 22.07.2024. 4. We have considered the materials on record. We find that the petitioners are in custody for about two years and six months. The fundamental right of an under-trial to personal liberty and speedy trial cannot be overemphasized and the delay in trial caused cannot be attributed to the present petitioners. Considering all the aspects and the recent decisions of the Hon’ble Apex Court, we are inclined to enlarge the petitioners on bail on certain conditions. 5. Accordingly, we direct that the petitioners, namely PRAVAT MUKHERJEE @ BAPPA & BISWAJIT CHAKRABORTY shall be released on bail upon furnishing a bond of Rs.10,000/-each, with two sureties of like amount each, one of whom must be local, to the satisfaction of the learned Judge, Special Court under the POCSO Act at Barasat, North 24 Parganas, and on further conditions that they shall not enter the districts 3 of North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas except for attending the court proceedings and shall provide the address where they shall presently reside to the Officer in Charge of the New Town Police Station as well as learned Trial Court and shall meet the Officer in Charge of the concerned police station within whose jurisdiction they shall presently reside once in a week until further orders. 6. The petitioners shall appear before the trial court on every date of hearing until further orders and shall not intimidate the witnesses and/or tamper with evidence and/or commit any cognizable offence in any manner whatsoever. 7. In the event the petitioners fail to adhere to any of the conditions stipulated above without justifiable cause, the trial court shall be at liberty to cancel the petitioners’ bail in accordance with law without further reference to this Court. 8. The application for bail is, accordingly, allowed. 9. All parties shall act in terms of server copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court. (Arijit Banerjee, J.) (Apurba Sinha Ray, J.) 4