BAIL GRANTED - Patna High Court (Raj Kumar, J.), Cr. Misc. No. 8567 of 2026, oral order dt. 16-07-2026, arising out of Gaura P.S. Case No. 178 of 2025 (District Saran), offences under Sections 103(1), 123, 3(5) BNS. Petitioner Bhushan Giri @ Shashibhushan Kumar sought regular bail; prosecution stems from the fardbeyan of informant Sangita Devi recording that on 04.09.2025 her husband Shatrughan Rai was called away by the petitioner with co-accused persons and later found dead, the dispute being an offshoot of a land sale involving co-accused Manoj Giri. Examining the record, the Court found no direct circumstance or allegation against the petitioner save his being named in the FIR, no motive or enmity attributed to him, the motive being specifically assigned to co-accused Manoj Giri and Uday Giri; on the Court's specific query, the informant's counsel conceded that no witness during the course of investigation had seen the petitioner. Holding the petitioner's exclusion from the circumstances specifically directed against the other co-accused persons tenable for purposes of bail, and weighing his clean antecedent and judicial custody since 09.10.2025, the Court permitted his release on furnishing bail bonds of Rs. 10,000/- with two sureties of the like amount each before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Saran, subject to: availability on each and every date till conclusion of trial; one bailor being a close relative (mother, father, brother, sister or wife); and liability of the bail bond to cancellation if he fails to appear on two consecutive dates unless prevented by extremely adverse circumstances. Counsel for the petitioner had further submitted that case-diary witnesses at paragraphs 4, 5 and 15 had not taken the petitioner's name, that the dead body was recovered in an open space accessible to all near the house of co-accused Uday Giri (also stated at case diary paragraph 83 by the APP), that counsel for the informant and the APP held the FIR allegation to be supported by the FSL report detecting poison, and that the inquest report prepared prior to the lodging of the FIR was hit by Section 181 of the BNSS - points recorded without express adjudication by this Court.
