IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No.17883 of 2026 Arising Out of PS. Case No.-20 Year-2026 Thana- Benta District- Darbhanga ====================================================== Manohar Choudhary @ Manohar Kumar Choudhary S/O Late Anant Choudhary Village - Gangasagar Donar, P.S.- Benta, District- Darbhanga, State- Bihar, Pin Code-846004. ... ... Petitioner/s Versus The State of Bihar ... ... Opposite Party/s ====================================================== Appearance : For the Petitioner/s : Mr/s.Kanchan Jha For the Opposite Party/s : Mr.Md. Anzarul Haque Sahara ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SATYAVRAT VERMA ORAL ORDER 2 19-03-2026 1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned APP for the State. 2. The petitioner seeks bail in anticipation of his arrest in a case registered for the offences punishable under Section 30(a) of the Excise Act. 3. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is a person with clean antecedent and allegation is of recovery of 28.200 litres of liquor from the house of the petitioner. 4. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner was not arrested from the spot, as such, nothing was recovered from his conscious possession and even the house in question is a joint family property and thus, it cannot be alleged Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.17883 of 2026(2) dt.19-03-2026 2/3 with certainty that it was the petitioner, who had kept the liquor in the house or the liquor kept in the house was within his knowledge and after Amendment in the Excise Act, 2018, the concept of deemed possession and presumed offender has been done away with and he came to be implicated based on confessional statement of his brother in-law Ashok in police custody, which does not have any evidentiary value. 5. Learned A.P.P. opposes the anticipatory bail application. 6. Considering the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner, the petitioner, above-named, in the event of his arrest or surrender before the learned Court below within a period of six weeks, is directed to be released on provisional anticipatory bail on his furnishing bail-bonds in the sum 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 Benta P. S. Case No.20 of 2026, subject to the conditions laid down under Section 438(2) of the Cr.P.C. 7. The application stands allowed. 8. The application stands allowed. 8. It is made clear that the learned trial Court after accepting the provisional bail bonds of the petitioner shall verify Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.17883 of 2026(2) dt.19-03-2026 3/3 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 obtaining anticipatory bail had concealed his antecedent before this Court, in that event, the present provisional anticipatory bail order shall not be confirmed, but if on verification, it is found that petitioner is a person with clean antecedent, in that event, the provisional anticipatory bail order shall be confirmed forthwith. vikash/- (Satyavrat Verma, J) U T