[POCSO Act] Supreme Court grants anticipatory bail to woman accused of sexually assaulting stepdaughter

A woman accused of sexual assault by her minor stepdaughter was granted anticipatory bail by the Supreme Court after noting that custodial interrogation would not serve the cause of justice [Urmila Prakash Bhatia v State of Maharashtra]..The order was passed by a bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sudhanshu Dhulia on Tuesday. The Court said that while it is not making any comments on the merits of the case, it is inclined to grant pre-arrest bail.“We are not making any comments on the merits of the case either way but in the totality of the facts and circumstances of this case as also nature of accusations, we are clearly of the view that the custodial interrogation of the appellant is neither required nor would serve the cause of justice,” the order said.The bench clarified that the anticipatory bail would, nonetheless, be subject to conditions imposed by the top court as well as the trial court..The appellant was accused of outraging a woman’s modesty, voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult, criminal intimidation, sexual assault of a minor, sexual harassment upon a child under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCOS Act) and offences under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act..The allegations were made by her 17-year-old stepdaughter claiming that the appellant behaved inappropriately with her and mentally harassed her, while her father was abroad.The appellant approached the top court after the Bombay High Court rejected the anticipatory bail plea. .During previous hearings, the apex court had granted interim protection to the appellant on the conditions that she would not enter the matrimonial home, create any unpleasant situation or attempt to go near the victim child..The Court took into account the background of the case which arose from a marital dispute between the victim’s father and the appellant. The matter was earlier referred to mediation which failed to yield a positive result..On hearing the State counsel as well as the appellant, it was the court’s opinion that the appellant be released on pre-arrest bail..Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocates Sana Raees Khan, Anuj Jhaveri, Mahinder Singh Hura, Jasmeet Singh, Saif Ali, Divjot Singh Bhatia, Pushpendra S Bhadoriya, Rusheet Saluja, Mandeep Kaur, and Tanya Srivastava appeared for the appellant.The respondents were represented by Senior Advocate Dama S Naidu and advocates Shrirang B Varma, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Dhiraj, Saakshat Relekar, Ashutosh Dubey, and Abhishek Chauhan for M/s Vachher and Agrud..[Read Order]