Bail — prayer rejected — Patna High Court (Harish Kumar, J.), Criminal Miscellaneous No. 9992 of 2024, decided 20-09-2024. Petitioners Sakal Deo Yadav, Ranjan Yadav @ Aniket Kumar and Ravish Kumar, in custody in S.C. No. 37/2024 arising out of Korma P.S. Case No. 15 of 2023 (District Sheikhpura), sought bail for offences under Sections 147, 148, 149, 341, 342, 323, 324, 325, 307, 302, 120(B) IPC and Section 27 of the Arms Act. Prosecution alleges that, on the exhortation of co-accused Pashupati Yadav, the petitioners resorted to indiscriminate firing due to which the informant's brother Adalat Yadav sustained bullet injuries and fell down; co-accused Ravish Kumar is alleged to have fired at the informant's chest and co-accused Pankaj Kumar at his head. Defence contentions: case and counter case between the parties (Korma P.S. Case No. 16 of 2023 alleging brutal assault on petitioner No. 3); prosecution's failure to explain injuries on the petitioner's side; post-mortem disclosing only two injuries despite allegation of firing on three accused persons; case diary statements (paragraphs 10, 13, 14) of the wife of the deceased and other claimed eye-witnesses attributing the fatal injury to Devan Yadav; and presence of the petitioners only with lathi and danda without specific allegation of firing. State and informant relied on the petitioners' criminal antecedents, the specific allegation of indiscriminate firing, and the trial being at the fag end with six of seven charge-sheet witnesses already examined. Held: considering the specific nature of accusation and the trial being at the fag end, the bail prayer was rejected; the trial court was expected to conclude the trial expeditiously, and the petitioners were granted liberty to move the Court again if the trial was not concluded within two months.
