Common oral order dated 12-05-2025 of the High Court of Judicature at Patna (Harish Kumar, J) disposing of CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No.5433 of 2025 (petitioners Chhotu Yadav s/o Tanik Yadav and Sanjit Kumar s/o Ravindra Yadav) and CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No. 13165 of 2025 (petitioner Vikash Kumar @ Lale @ Lale Yadav @ Late Yadav s/o Nand Kishore Yadav), both arising out of Belaganj P.S. Case No. 578 of 2023 (District Gaya), registered for offences punishable under Sections 302/201/34 of the Indian Penal Code. Per the written report, the informant's son Rahul Kumar, while grazing his buffalo, was called away by co-accused Ajay Kumar and taken to Ahiyapur where Golu Kumar and Gautam Kumar were present with a Scorpio vehicle; the accused took him away in the Scorpio and his dead body was found at Magadh Medical Hospital, Gaya after two days; the FIR was lodged on 25.08.2023 for an occurrence of 21.08.2023 at about 4:00 p.m. During investigation, co-accused Raju Yadav's police-recorded confessional statement, made about a month after the incident, implicated the petitioners: while attempting to rob a Hyva truck, Rahul Kumar came under the wheels of the vehicle and died, whereupon the body was thrown into a ditch. Counsel contended the petitioners were unnamed in the FIR and their presence was not found near the place of occurrence on the date/time of occurrence, that the confessional statement was not admissible, that no offence much less under Section 302 IPC was made out and at most a bailable offence under Section 201 IPC was attracted, and that the petitioners were of fair antecedents; the State conceded that save and except the confessional statement there was no material. Held: considering that except the confessional statement there is no material suggesting the petitioners' complicity, coupled with fair antecedents, the petitioners abovenamed were released on bail in the event of arrest or surrender before the court below within four weeks, upon furnishing bail bonds of Rs. 10,000/- (ten thousand) each with two sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gaya, subject to the conditions laid down in Section 482(2) of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, with the further condition that one of the bailors shall be an own/close family member of the petitioners.
