IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Cr.Misc. No.36628 of 2009 SONU KUMAR son of Late Manoj Kumar resident of village Balipakar, P. S. Paliganj, District Patna….. Petitioner. Versus STATE OF BIHAR ----------- 4. 14.07.2010 Heard counsel for the petitioner and counsel for the State. The prayer for bail of the petitioner was earlier rejected by an order dated 27.3.2009 in Cr. Misc. No.51531 of 2008 recording that as per the statement of Surendra Singh under Section 164 Cr.P.C. the petitioner also appeared to be main assailant along with Navnit Sharma. Mr. Shukla, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner while praying for grant of bail has submitted that the petitioner has no criminal antecedent and that he has remained in judicial custody for more than two years even when he is not the main assailant. In this connection he has referred to paragraph no. 94 of the case- diary and has sought to test version of 2 the informant Surendra Singh in the FIR with his later statement recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. to establish that the petitioner is not the main assailant. From the reading of them together it would transpire that while Surendra Singh in the First Information Report had suggested only one person to have opened fire which had hit his shoulder as also the deceased in his neck, the same person has after more than one month had sought to develop the story by stating in his statement u/s 164 Cr.P.C. that the fatal injury on the deceased was shot by Navnit Sharma whereas the injury on his shoulder was caused by the petitioner. That being so, this Court would find that prima facie the petitioner is not the main assailant inasmuch as even as per 164 Cr.P.C. statement of the informant he at best can be said to have caused firearm injury only to the informant and not the deceased. Considering this aspect of the 3 matter as also the fact that the petitioner having no criminal antecedent, has remained in custody for a period of two years, this Court would direct for release of the petitioner, namely, Sonu Kumar on bail on his furnishing bail bond of Rs.10,000/- (ten thousand) with two sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of A.C.J.M., Danapur, Patna in connection with Paliganj P. S. Case No. 29 of 2008, subject to the condition that one of the sureties must be furnished by the mother of the petitioner. It is, however, made clear that the court below will verify the fact before releasing the petitioner on bail that he has got no criminal antecedent. kanchan (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)