Patna High Court
Meena DeviversusThe State of Bihar
- Decided
- Disposal
- DISPOSED
- Bench
- SATYAVRAT VERMA
Holding
The Court conditionally granted provisional anticipatory bail, pending verification of the petitioner’s antecedent, under Section 482(2) of the BNSS.
Summary
Meena Devi applied for anticipatory bail after a FIR was lodged under Section 30(a) of the Bihar Excise Act alleging recovery of 15 litres of liquor from a location adjacent to her house. She was not arrested and no liquor was found in her possession. The petitioner claimed she has a clean antecedent and that the complaint was motivated by personal enmity between her husband and the chowkidar who allegedly fabricated the charge. The State opposed the bail. The High Court, considering these submissions, granted provisional anticipatory bail subject to a Rs. 500 bond, two sureties of equal amount, and verification of the petitioner’s criminal antecedent by the trial court, with the order to be confirmed if she is found to have no prior cases.
Issues considered
- Whether anticipatory bail should be granted in a case under Section 30(a) of the Bihar Excise Act where the accused was not arrested and no contraband was found in her possession.
- Whether the alleged false implication by a private individual warrants denial of bail.
Subjects
- anticipatory bail
- excise offence
- Section 30(a)
- Section 482(2)
- false implication
- clean antecedent
- bail conditions
Judgment
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No.31118 of 2026
Arising Out of PS. Case No.-152 Year-2026 Thana- DARIYAPUR District- Saran
======================================================
Meena Devi W/o Lalbabu Chaudhari R/o vill - Bela Mahammadpur, P.S.-
Dariyapur, Distt.- Saran
... ... Petitioner/s
Versus
The State of Bihar
... ... Opposite Party/s
======================================================
Appearance :
For the Petitioner/s : Ms.Shweta Anand
For the Opposite Party/s : Ms.Shaheen Begum
======================================================
CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SATYAVRAT VERMA
ORAL ORDER
2 07-05-2026 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 offences punishable under Section 30(a) of the
Bihar Excise Act.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the
petitioner is a person with clean antecedent and is a woman and
allegation is of recovery of 15 litres of liquor from a place near
the house of the petitioner.
4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the
petitioner was not arrested from the spot as such nothing was
recovered from her conscious possession and even the alleged
recovery is from a place which does not belong to the petitioner
but then is adjacent to her house and she came to be implicated
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at the instance of Chowkidar with whom her husband is on an
inimical term. It is next submitted that if Chowkidar was aware
about 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 also submitted that in order to coerce her
husband into submission, chowkidar falsely implicated the
petitioner.
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 Dariyapur P.S. Case No. 152 of 2026, subject to
the conditions as laid down under Section 482(2) of the BNSS.
7. It is made clear that thereafter the learned Trial Court
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
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seeking anticipatory bail, had concealed her antecedent before this
Court, as such, the provisional anticipatory bail order shall not be
confirmed, but after verification if 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)
Sumit/-
U T
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