Ashish Kumar Barman v. The State Of West Bengal
08.01.2026 Item no. 18.
Court No.3.
Rakib (Allowed) In the High Court at Calcutta Circuit Bench at Jalpaiguri Criminal Miscellaneous Jurisdiction CRM (A) 960 of 2025 In Re: An Application for Anticipatory Bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973/Under Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 in connection with Siliguri Police Station Case No. 642 of 2025 dated 24.09.2025 under Sections 306 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. And In the matter of : Ashish Kumar Barman.
......Petitioner.
Mr. Abhishek Singh ......for the Petitioner.
Mr. Ujjwal Ludsom Ms. Namrata Das ......for the State.
Ms. Madhushri Dutta Mr. Bhaskar Das ....for de-facto complainant.
Learned advocate appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has been implicated in connection with the instant case by the employer by way of vindictiveness and the police authorities are after him.
Learned advocate appearing for the State on the other hand has produced the Case Diary and demonstrated that the money which was stolen from the employer was transferred to the account of the wife of the present petitioner. State has also submitted a report which reflects that the account number 2987337710 was frozen in course of the investigation and the available balance lying is Rs.4,38,380.36/-.
Learned advocate appearing for the de-facto complainant is present and opposes the prayer for bail. Additionally, learned advocate submits that the trust which was reposed upon the employees was shattered by the act and conduct and the offence should not be taken lightly.
As substantial amount of money has been frozen by the investigating officer of the case, I am of the opinion that further custodial detention of the petitioner may not be warranted. As such, the prayer for anticipatory bail of the petitioner is allowed. Accordingly, I direct that in the event of arrest, the petitioner be released on bail upon furnishing a bond of Rs.20,000/- (Rupees Twenty Thousand only), with two sureties of Rs. 10,000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand only) each, one of whom must be local to the satisfaction of the investigating officer/arresting officer of the case and also subject to the conditions as laid down under Section 438(2) of the Cr.P.C. and/or under Section 482(2) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.
As the investigation of the case is in progress, the petitioner shall meet with the investigating officer once in a week on and from 10th of January, 2026 till the charge-sheet is furnished before the learned jurisdictional Court. It is further directed that the defreezing of the aforesaid account being maintained with Central Bank of India, Panitanki
More Branch, Siliguri should not be effected without issuing any notice to the de-facto complainant of the case. With the aforesaid observations CRM (A) 960 of 2025 is allowed.
Report submitted by the State be kept with the record. All parties shall act in terms of server copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance with all requisite formalities.
(Tirthankar Ghosh, J.)