Sopal Sah v. The State Of Bihar

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA

CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No.1599 of 2023 Arising Out of PS. Case No.-361 Year-2019 Thana- DALSINGHSARAI District- Samastipur ====================================================== SOPAL SAH SON OF ARJUN SAH R/O VILLAGE- GUDARRI MARKET DALSINGSARAI, P.S.- DALASINGSARAI, DISTRICT- SAMASTIPUR ... ... Petitioner/s

Versus

The State of Bihar ... ... Opposite Party/s ====================================================== Appearance :

For the Petitioner/s :

Mr.Ajay Kumar For the Opposite Party/s :

Mr.Ram Bilash Roy Raman ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ANIL KUMAR SINHA ORAL ORDER 22-02-2023 Petitioner has renewed his prayer for regular bail in connection with S.T. No. 159 / 2020 (arising out of Dalsingsarai P.S. Case No. 361 of 2019) registered for the offence under Sections 304 (B), 302 / 34 of the I.P.C. inasmuch as earlier bail application of the petitioner was rejected on 11.11.2020 & 30.03.2022 vide Cr. Misc. Nos. 23796 of 2020 & 4581 of 2022 respectively.

The bail application of the petitioner was rejected earlier on two occasions on merit.

The allegation against the petitioner is that he poured kerosene oil upon his wife and set her on fire with the help of match stick. The statement of the victim girl has been recorded by the Police in paragraph no.-53 of the case diary in which she has stated that the petitioner had set her on fire.

Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.1599 of 2023(3) dt.22-02-2023 2/2 This court vide its order dated 11/01/2023 has called for a report from the court below regarding the present stage of the trial which has been furnished by the learned Addl. District & Sessions Judge-IX, Samastipur vide letter no. 32 / 2023 dated 1st February, 2023 and from perusal of the same it transpires that out of seven charge- sheet witnesses, two witnesses have been examined and cross- examined and five prosecution witnesses are yet to be examined. The learned trial court has given the estimated time for conclusion of the trial as nine months.

Taking into consideration the nature of allegation and the material collected during the course of investigation, I am not inclined to grant regular bail to the petitioner at this stage. The prayer for bail is rejected.

However, the learned trial court is directed to expedite the trial and conclude the same within a period of nine months from today.

(Anil Kumar Sinha, J) praful/- U T