Case Title: Aniket Mishra vs State of Odisha
A single bench of Justice Chittaranjan Dash of Orissa High Court refused to grant anticipatory bail to a man who is accused of raising slogans and attacking the shops, residential houses of the Muslim community during Hanuman Jayanti Procession.
The bench noted “The incident occurred in connection with Hanuman Jayanti while the procession being taken and the incident is one out of the retaliation to the incident that occurred just three days before the Hanuman Jayanti on April 14, 2023. The name of the present Petitioner along with others finds place in the FIR who led the mob and attacked the shops as well as the residential houses of the Muslim community”.
The court noted that after the said incident a riot took place leading to arson and bloodshed.
Anticipatory bail, the judge said, is an extra ordinary discretionary power and cannot be granted in a routine manner
The bench opined that “There is nothing in the FIR that the Petitioner holds a prestigious position so as to draw an inference that in a situation of this kind a case could have been hatched against him in order to defame him”.
The bench said “On the contrary, grant of pre arrest bail vis-à-vis the allegations made in the FIR will have a great ramification when the situation is volatile and as such it is not desirable to allow pre-arrest bail in favour of the Petitioner before he is subjected to investigation/interrogation”.
