The Karnataka High Court has set aside the anticipatory bail granted to yoga practitioner Vachanananda Swami in a case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, holding that the manner in which the Sessions Court granted pre-arrest bail was legally unsustainable.
The single-judge Bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna, however, extended protection from arrest for three weeks on Thursday, enabling the accused to apply for regular bail before the competent court.
The Court passed the order while allowing a petition filed by the complainant, the mother of the minor victim, challenging the Sessions Court’s order dated May 2, granting anticipatory bail to the seer. The accused has been booked under Sections 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 of the POCSO Act over allegations of sexual assault and sodomy involving a minor boy.
The High Court observed that although the police had filed a chargesheet after completing the investigation, the filing of the final report was not the reason for cancelling the anticipatory bail. Instead, the Court found serious infirmities in the procedure adopted while granting pre-arrest bail.
It noted that anticipatory bail had been granted even before the complaint was registered, despite the serious nature of the offences alleged under the POCSO Act. The Bench remarked that this aspect itself warranted interference with the Sessions Court’s order.
The Court also found that the Special Court had failed to hear the victim before granting anticipatory bail. It held that non-compliance with the statutory requirement of hearing the victim in a POCSO case constituted an independent ground to set aside the bail order. The Court accepted the Public Prosecutor’s submission that the victim’s right to be heard had been ignored.
While cancelling the anticipatory bail, the Court clarified that it had not examined the merits of the allegations or the evidence collected during the investigation. It emphasised that the order was confined to the legality of the procedure adopted by the Sessions Court while granting anticipatory bail and should not influence any future consideration of the accused’s regular bail application.
Taking note of the fact that Vachanananda Swami had not been taken into custody, in view of the protection provided by the anticipatory bail order, the Court granted him three weeks to approach the Special POCSO Court for regular bail. It directed that if such an application was filed within the stipulated period, it should be decided expeditiously in accordance with the directions issued by the Supreme Court regarding prompt disposal of bail applications.
The High Court further directed that the trial court should consider any regular bail application independently, on its own merits and in accordance with law, without being influenced by the observations made in the present proceedings.
During the hearing, the counsel for the complainant submitted that strict conditions should be imposed, as a separate FIR had allegedly been registered against the accused for threatening the complainant. The counsel appearing for Vachanananda Swami requested that the trial court be permitted to consider the regular bail application uninfluenced by the High Court’s findings, which the Court accepted.
The case relates to allegations that Vachanananda Swami, the expelled head of the Veerashaiva Lingayat Panchamasali Guru Peetha at Harihar, sexually abused a 16-year-old boy who was residing in a hostel run by the mutt. The FIR was registered on the complaint lodged by the victim’s mother, following which offences under the POCSO Act were invoked against the seer.
The post Karnataka High Court cancels anticipatory bail granted to Vachanananda Swami in POCSO case appeared first on India Legal.