Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:89190 Court No. - 65 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 16720 of 2025 Applicant :- Raju Chaudhary Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Applicant :- Aditya Mishra,Sharda Prasad Mishra,Subhash Chandra Maurya Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A. Hon'ble Krishan Pahal,J. 1. List has been revised. 2. Heard Sri Sharda Prasad Mishra, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri Atul Kumar, learned counsel for the informant as well as Sri Shyam Dhar Maurya, learned A.G.A. for the State and also perused the material placed on record. 3. Applicant seeks bail in Case Crime No. 27 of 2025, under Section 65(1) of BNS and Sections 3/4(2) of POCSO Act, Police Station - Adampur, District - Varanasi, during the pendency of trial. 4. As per prosecution story, the applicant is stated to have forcibly taken the victim to a secluded place on 06.02.2025 at about 10:00 PM and committed rape 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. He has nothing to do with the said offence as alleged in the FIR. The FIR is delayed by about 17 days and there is no explanation of the said delay caused. 6. Learned counsel has also stated that there is no medical corroboration of the incident as the victim has not sustained any injury whatsoever. It is true that the victim was minor aged about 14 years 07 months 16 days as per her school certificate of Class VIII whereby her date of birth is shown to be 13.06.2010. The said certificate is not admissible in light of Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act. 7. Learned counsel has next contended that there is no criminal history of the applicant. The applicant is languishing in jail since 25.02.2025 and he is ready to cooperate with trial. In case, the applicant is released on bail, he will not misuse the liberty of bail. 8. Per contra, learned AGA and learned counsel for the informant have vehemently opposed the bail application on the ground that the victim was under extreme trauma after the incident, as such, could not narrate the story to her parents and when she told about the incident to them, they filed an application between the Commissioner of Police, Varanasi on 11.02.2025, as such, the delay in lodging the FIR has been explained. However, learned AGA has not disputed the fact that the applicant has no criminal history. 9. The said document i.e. Class VIII school 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, delay in lodging the FIR, the age of the victim and also there being no medical corroboration of the incident, I find it a fit case to release the applicant on bail. The bail application is allowed. 11. Let the applicant- Raju Chaudhary, 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:- 26.5.2025 Siddhant (Justice Krishan Pahal) Digitally signed by :- SIDDHANT SAHU High Court of Judicature at Allahabad