Krishna Sah @ Butan Sah @ Krishna Kumar SahversusThe State of Bihar

                      IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
                              CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No.12051 of 2026
                   Arising Out of PS. Case No.-177 Year-2025 Thana- SIRISIYA District- West Champaran
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                 Krishna Sah @ Butan Sah @ Krishna Kumar Sah Son of Sri Ramnath Sah @
                 Bapsu Sah @ Basu Sah Resident of Village - Garabhua, Lala Tola, P.S. -
                 Sirisiya, Dist. - West Champaran.

                                                                                   ... ... Petitioner/s
                                                        Versus
                 The State of Bihar

                                                        ... ... Opposite Party/s
                 ======================================================
                 Appearance :
                 For the Petitioner/s     :        Mr. Sharad Kumar Verma, Advocate
                 For the Opposite Party/s :        Ms. Sucheta Yadav, APP
                 ======================================================
                 CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SATYAVRAT VERMA
                                       ORAL ORDER

2   26-02-2026                  Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned

                   APP for the State.

                                2. Petitioner apprehends his 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 has antecedents of four cases, out of which two cases

                   are under the Excise Act and allegation is of recovery of 25

                   litres of liquor from house of the petitioner. It is next submitted

                   that petitioner was not arrested from the spot, as such, nothing

                   was recovered from his 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.12051 of 2026(2) dt.26-02-2026
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          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 he came to be implicated at the

          instance of Chowkidar with whom he is on an inimical term. It

          is also submitted that if Chowkidar was aware of the

          involvement of the petitioner in the occurrence then why he did

          not inform the police prior to institution of the instant FIR,

          which casts an aspersion on the case of the prosecution. It is

          next submitted that once an accused is implicated in a case

          relating to excise, the police starts implicating mechanically

          either at the instance of Chowkidar, local person, confessional

          statement or secret information without holding a proper

          investigation.

                       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 his arrest or surrender before the learned Court below

          within a period of six weeks, is directed to be released on

          provisional anticipatory bail on his furnishing bail-bond in the

          sum of Rs.20,000/- (Rupees Twenty Thousand) with two
               Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.12051 of 2026(2) dt.26-02-2026
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                         sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of learned

                         Special Judge, Excise Court-I, West Champaran at Bettiah in

                         connection with Sirisiya P.S. Case No.177 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

                         accepting the provisional bail bond of the petitioner shall verify

                         the criminal antecedent of the petitioner and in the event, if it is

                         found that petitioner has antecedent of more than four cases,

                         then it would be presumed that petitioner for the purposes of

                         obtaining anticipatory bail had concealed his 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 has antecedent of only four cases, in that event,

                         the provisional anticipatory bail order shall be confirmed

                         forthwith.


                                                   (Satyavrat Verma, J)

Sanjay/-

U          T