Sharda Devi v. The State Of Bihar

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA

CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No.54962 of 2024 Arising Out of PS. Case No.-106 Year-2024 Thana- RAFIGANJ District- Aurangabad ====================================================== SHARDA DEVI W/O INDAL CHAUDHARY R/O VILLAGE- SEOLI KHAIRA, P.S- RAFIGANJ, DISTT.- AURANGABAD.

... ... Petitioner/s

Versus

THE STATE OF BIHAR ... ... Opposite Party/s ====================================================== Appearance :

For the Petitioner/s :

Ms. Nikita Mittal, Advocate For the Opposite Party/s :

Mr. Binod Kumar, A.P.P.

====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SATYAVRAT VERMA ORAL ORDER 07-08-2024

1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned A.P.P. for the State.

2. The petitioner apprehends her arrest in a case registered for the offence punishable under Section 30(a) of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise (Amendment) Act, 2022.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner is a person with clean antecedent and is a woman.

4. Allegation is of recovery of 35 litres of liquor from the house of Butta Chaudhary, 46 litres of liquor from the house of Sanjay Chaudhary and 45 litres of liquor from the house of the petitioner.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner was not arrested from the spot, as such, nothing was recovered from her conscious possession and after amendment in the Excise Act in the year 2018, the concept of deemed

Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.54962 of 2024(2) dt.07-08-2024 2/3 possession and presumed offender has been done away with. It is further submitted that the house in question is a joint family property, as such, it cannot be alleged with certainty that it was the petitioner who had kept the liquor in the house or the liquor kept in the house was within her knowledge. It is next submitted that petitioner came to be implicated based on the secret information which is the easiest way to implicate someone, when petitioner admittedly is a person with clean antecedent.

6. Learned A.P.P. for the State opposes the prayer for anticipatory bail of the petitioner.

7. Considering the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner, let the petitioner above-named, in the event of her arrest or surrender before the learned Court below within a period of six weeks from today, be released on anticipatory bail on furnishing bail bonds of Rs.500/- (Rupees Five Hundred) with two sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of the learned court below where the case is pending/successor court in connection with Rafiganj P.S. Case No. 106 of 2024, subject to the conditions as laid down under Section 438 (2) of the Cr.P.C.

8. However, the learned trial court, before accepting the bail bonds of the petitioner, shall verify the criminal

Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.54962 of 2024(2) dt.07-08-2024 3/3 antecedent of the petitioner and if it is found that petitioner has antecedent of even one case in that event the present anticipatory bail order shall not be given effect to. (Satyavrat Verma, J) Kundan/- U T