Puja Devi v. The State Of Bihar
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No.46500 of 2026 Arising Out of PS. Case No.-153 Year-2026 Thana- MAKER District- Saran ====================================================== Puja Devi W/o Horil Sahni Resident of Village- Baghakol Nayatola, Ward No. -06, P.S.- Maker, District- Saran.
... ... Petitioner/s
Versus
The State of Bihar ... ... Opposite Party/s ====================================================== Appearance :
For the Petitioner/s :
Mr. Nalin Kumar For the Opposite Party/s :
Mr. Md. Iftekhar Mahmood ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SATYAVRAT VERMA ORAL ORDER 15-07-2026
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 Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner is a person with clean antecedent and is a woman and allegation is of recovery of 24.960 litres of liquor from house of petitioner.
4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner was not arrested from the spot as such nothing was recovered from her conscious possession and the house in question is a joint family property as such it cannot be alleged with certainty that it was petitioner, who had kept the liquor in
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.46500 of 2026(2) dt.15-07-2026 2/3 the house or the liquor kept in the house was within his knowledge and after amendment in the Excise Act in the year 2018, the concept of deemed possession and presumed offender has been done away with and she came to be implicated at the instance of chowkidar with whom her husband is on an inimical term. It is also submitted that chowkidar in order to coerce her husband into submission falsely implicated the petitioner, when petitioner admittedly is a person with clean antecedent.
5. Learned A.P.P. for the State opposes the prayer for anticipatory bail of the petitioner.
6. Considering the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner, the petitioner above-named, in the event of her arrest or surrender within a period of six weeks from today, be released on provisional 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 trial court where the case is pending/successor court in connection with Maker P.S. Case No.153 of 2026, subject to the conditions as laid down under Section 482(2) of the B.N.S.S.
7. It is made clear that the learned trial court thereafter shall verify the criminal antecedents of the petitioner and in the event if it is found that petitioner has antecedent of even one
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.46500 of 2026(2) dt.15-07-2026 3/3 case, in that event, it would be presumed that petitioner had concealed her antecedent before this court, as such, the provisional anticipatory bail order shall not be confirmed but if on verification it is found that petitioner is a person with clean antecedent, in that event the provisional anticipatory bail order shall be confirmed forthwith.
(Satyavrat Verma, J) amit/- U T