23.06.2026 IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA Item No.40 CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS JURISDICTION Ct.No.35 dc. Allowed C.R.M. (M) 757 of 2026 In Re : An Application for bail under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 filed in connection with Bhadreswar Police Station Case No. 68 of 2024 dated 15.02.2024 under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. And In Re : Firoz Alam @ Guddu ... Petitioner. Mr. Bitasok Banerjee, Mr. Abdus Salam, Ms. Debangana Bhattacharya ... For the Petitioner. Ms. Arushi Rathore, Mr. Amartya Mohan Bhattacharyya ... For the State. Mr. Aniruddha Bhattacharyya ... For the victim/de facto complainant. Learned advocate appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is in custody for 2 years 4 months. Earlier there were directions of this Court to expedite the trial, but till date only 2 witnesses have been examined out of 32 witnesses cited by the prosecution. Learned advocate appearing for the State opposes the prayer for bail as the age of the child is above six years. Attention of the Court was drawn to the statement of the victim under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as well as the statement of the mother of the victim. Learned advocate appearing for the de facto complainant also opposes the prayer for bail and submits that the presumptions under the relevant provisions of the 2 POCSO Act in the present case do not warrant, but other attending circumstances do corroborate the victim’s version and the sole testimony of the victim is sufficient to arrive at a final conclusion by the Court. I have taken into account the submissions of the respective parties. The evidence of the victim and her mother has been completed. Petitioner is in custody for 2 years 4 months. Without commenting on the merits of the case and considering only the period of detention of the present petitioner and time will be required to take the trial to its logical conclusion, I am inclined to release the petitioner on bail. As such, the prayer for bail of the petitioner is allowed. Accordingly, the petitioner viz., Firoz Alam @ Guddu shall be released on bail upon furnishing bond of Rs.20,000/-, with two sureties of Rs.10,000/- each, one of whom must be local, to the satisfaction of the learned Judge, Special Court under the POCSO Act, Chandernagore, Hooghly. If on bail, the petitioner shall be physically present on each and every date so fixed by the learned Trial Court and shall not leave the jurisdiction of the district of Hooghly without prior permission of the learned Trial Court. Additionally, the petitioner shall not enter the jurisdiction of Bhadreswar Police Station till further orders of this Court. Memo of Evidence submitted by the learned advocate appearing for the State be kept with the record. 3 The application for bail, being CRM (M) 757 of 2026, is, thus, disposed of. All concerned parties shall act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance with all requisite formalities. (Tirthankar Ghosh, J.)