HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD LUCKNOW CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 8539 of 2025 Court No. - 10 HON'BLE RAJNISH KUMAR, J. HON'BLE ZAFEER AHMAD, J. 1. Heard Sri Prabhat Kumar Mishra, learned counsel for the petitioners and learned AGA for the State. 2. In view of the proposed order, notice to opposite party No.4 is hereby dispensed with. 3. By means of this petition, petitioners have assailed the impugned FIR bearing FIR/Case Crime No. 0337 of 2025, under Sections 115(2), 352, 351(3), 309(4) B.N.S., 2023 lodged at Police Station Kotwali City, District Hardoi. 4. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the present petitioners have been falsely implicated as they have not committed any offence of any kind whatsoever. Attention has been drawn towards the impugned FIR wherein the the date of incident has been indicated as 06.07.2024 but the FIR has been lodged on 13.05.2025 without explaining the inordinate delay having ulterior motive and exterior design in the mind of the informant. Learned counsel has also stated that the investigation is going on and the present petitioners undertake that they shall cooperate in the investigation properly. He further submits that co-accused, Shiva Kumar Gautam has approached this Court by means of Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No.7657 of 2025, wherein this Court has passed an order on Versus Counsel for Petitioner(s) : Pradeep Kumar, Adarsh Tripathi, Ashutosh Tiwari, Prabhat Kumar Mishra Counsel for Respondent(s) : G.A. Sonu Alias Sonu Yadav And Another .....Petitioner(s) State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Home Lko. And 3 Others .....Respondent(s) 12.09.2025, which on reproduction reads as under:- " 1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned AGA for the State. 2. In view of the proposed order, notice to opposite party No.4 is hereby dispensed with. 3. By means of this petition, petitioner has assailed the impugned FIR bearing FIR/Case Crime No. 0337 of 2025 under Sections 115(2), 352, 351(3), 309(4) B.N.S., 2023 at Police Station Kotwali City, District Hardoi. 4. Learned counsel for the petitioner has stated that the present petitioner has been falsely implicated as he has not committed any offence of any kind whatsoever. Attention has been drawn towards the impugned FIR wherein the the date of incident has been indicated as 06.07.2024 but the FIR has been lodged on 13.05.2025 without explaining the inordinate delay having ulterior motive and exterior design in the mind of the informant. Learned counsel has also stated that the investigation is going on and the present petitioner undertakes that he shall cooperate in the investigation properly. 5. Learned AGA has produced the instructions letter dated 28.08.2025 provided by one Amrit Lal Yadav, Sub Inspector, Police Station Kotwali City, District Hardoi, same is taken on record. As per the aforesaid instructions, during investigation section 309(4) B.N.S. has been dropped. Learned AGA has stated that since in the remaining sections, the punishment is up to seven years therefore the petitioner is entitled for the benefit of the judgment of Apex Court in re: Satender Kumar Antil vs. CBI and others and Arnesh Kumar vs. State of Bihar and another. 6. Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of in view of the provisions of Section 35(3) Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and the law as laid down by Apex Court in the case of Satender Kumar Antil (supra) and Arnesh Kumar (supra). 7. However, the petitioner shall appear before the Investigating Officer on 17.09.2025 at 11:00 a.m. sharp to co-operate in the investigation and record the statement, if the same has not been recorded. He shall further co-operate in the investigation proceeding till filing of the police report failing which protection of this order would be withdrawn on the application being moved by the prosecution or the informant. " CRLP No. 8539 of 2025 2 5. Learned AGA has produced the instructions letter dated 15.09.2025 provided by Sri Aditya Kumar Verma, Sub Inspector, Police Station Kotwali City, District Hardoi, which are taken on record. As per the aforesaid instructions, during investigation section 309(4) B.N.S. has been dropped. Learned AGA has stated that since in the remaining sections, the punishment is up to seven years therefore the petitioners are entitled for the benefit of the judgment of Apex Court in re: Arnesh Kumar vs. State of Bihar and another, (2014) 8 SCC 273 and Satender Kumar Antil vs. CBI and another, Special Leave to Appeal (Criminal) No. 5191 of 2021 : (2022) 10 SCC 51. 6. Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of in view of the provisions of Section 35(3) Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and the law as laid down by Apex Court in the case of Satender Kumar Antil (supra) and Arnesh Kumar (supra). 7. However, the petitioners shall appear before the Investigating Officer on 27.10.2025 at 11:00 A.M. sharp to co-operate in the investigation and record the statement, if the same has not been recorded. They shall further co-operate in the investigation proceeding till filing of the police report, failing which, protection of this order would be withdrawn on the application being moved by the prosecution or the informant. October 6, 2025 Saurabh CRLP No. 8539 of 2025 3 (Zafeer Ahmad,J.) (Rajnish Kumar,J.) Digitally signed by :- SAURABH VERMA High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench