Anticipatory bail granted due to familial land dispute and lagging credibility of FIR.

CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ANIL KUMAR SINHA ORAL ORDER

6 17-12-2025 1. Heard learned Counsel for the petitioner and learned Additional Public Prosecutor for the State.

2. This application, for grant of anticipatory bail, arises out of Andharamath Police Station Case No. 18 of 2024, disclosing offences under Sections 341 , 342, 323, 324, 325, 327, 447, 34 of the Indian Penal Code .

3. As per the FIR on 24.01.2024, at about 3 p.m., petitioners along with other accused persons arrived at the door of the informant on four-wheeler and motorcycle armed with weapon, assaulted his father Lakshmi Goit and one Rupesh Goit, and at the gunpoint, they took along with them, the father of the informant through the vehicle, and after two days, i.e., on 26.01.2024, after assaulting the informant's father, the accused persons left/dropped his father at about 12 p.m. in the night at the door of the informant.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioners have falsely been implicated in this case due to land dispute between the parties. The informant is brother-in- law of petitioner no. 3 and petitioner nos. 1 and 2 are the brother and father of petitioner no. 3. During course of investigation, the informant has said that petitioner no. 3 wants that the land belonging to the father of the informant should be transferred in her name and the name of her family members. The FIR has been lodged on concocted story which would be evident from the delay in lodging the FIR inasmuch as, as per the allegation, the father of the informant was beaten and kidnapped on 24.01.2024 and after brutally assaulting him, father of the informant was dropped at the door on 26.01.2024 i.e. after 2 days. For two days i.e., between 24.01.2024 to 26.01.2024, no information was given to the police by the informant for lodging an FIR. Even after the father of the informant was dropped near his house on 26.01.2024, the FIR has been lodged after a delay of about 4 days i.e., on 31.02.2024. This gives rise to the suspicion of the veracity of the FIR.

5. Having regard to the submissions made on behalf of the parties and taking into consideration the fact that petitioner no. 3 is sister-in-law of the informant, there appears to be a land dispute between them and there is a delay in lodging the FIR, I am inclined to grant the petitioners privilege of anticipatory bail.

6. This application is, accordingly, allowed.

7. Let the petitioners, above named, in the event of their arrest or surrender before the Court below within four weeks, be released on bail on furnishing bail bond of Rs. 10,000/- (ten thousand) with two sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of learned Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Jhanjharpur, Madhubani, in connection with Andharamath Police Station Case No. 18 of 2024, subject to the condition laid down under Section 438 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure /Section 482(2) of the BNSS , 2023.