Mehsi Devi @ Parwati Devi v. The State Of Bihar
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No.56909 of 2025 Arising Out of PS. Case No.-289 Year-2025 Thana- MOTIHARI TOWN District- East Champaran ====================================================== Mehsi Devi @ Parwati Devi W/o Late Ramji Chaudhari @ Late Ramji Chaudhary Resident of village- Baluwa Chikpatti, P.S.- Town, Distt.- East Champaran ... ... Petitioner/s
Versus
The State of Bihar ... ... Opposite Party/s ====================================================== Appearance :
For the Petitioner/s :
Mr. Abhishek Kumar, Advocate For the Opposite Party/s :
Mr. Akbar Ali, APP ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SATYAVRAT VERMA ORAL ORDER 05-01-2026 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned APP for the State.
2. Petitioner apprehends her arrest in a case registered for the offences punishable under Sections 274 and 275 of B.N.S., 2023 as well as Sections 30(a) and 41(1) of Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act.
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 35.7 litres of liquor from house of the petitioner and 17.7 litres of liquor from house of co-accused. It is next submitted 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,
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.56909 of 2025(3) dt.05-01-2026 2/3 as such, it cannot be alleged with certainty that it was petitioner who had kept the liquor in the house or the liquor kept in the house was within her 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 based on confessional statement of apprehended accused in police custody which does not have any evidentiary value.
4. Learned A.P.P. opposes the anticipatory bail application.
5. Considering the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner, the petitioner, above-named, in the event of her arrest or surrender before the learned Court below within a period of six weeks, is directed to be released on provisional anticipatory bail on her furnishing bail-bonds in the sum of Rs.500/- (Rupees Five Hundred) with two sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of the learned Special Judge, Excise Court No.-1, Motihari, East Champaran in connection with Town P.S. Case No.289 of 2025, subject to the conditions laid down under Section 482(2) of the B.N.S.S.
6. The application stands allowed.
7. It is made clear that the learned trial Court after
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.56909 of 2025(3) dt.05-01-2026 3/3 accepting the provisional bail bonds of the petitioner shall verify the criminal antecedent of the petitioner and in the event, if it is found that petitioner has antecedent of even one case, then it would be presumed that petitioner for the purposes of obtaining anticipatory bail had concealed her antecedent before this Court, in that event, the present 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) Sanjay/- U T