IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Cr.Misc. No.28628 of 2008 BIKRAM SINGH @ BIKRAM KUMAR SINGH son of Ram Lal Singh, Resident of village- Khilwat, P.S. Bidupur, District- Vaishali. ----- Petitioner Versus STATE OF BIHAR ----- Opposite Party ----------- 6 20.2.2009 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the counsel appearing on behalf of the State. Petitioner is seeking anticipatory bail in a case under Sections 20(a)(b), 8(B)(C) and 25 of the N.D.P.S. Act. The case was instituted in 1995 in which it has been said that in a hut 30 Kgs. Ganja was found and some persons on seeing the police party ran away from the hut. The person running away was not identified by the police authorities or the witnesses on the seizure list. The hut happened to belong to this petitioner. This Court had called for a report from the Court below with respect to the delay in taking steps with regard to this case which was instituted in the year 1995. A vague report has been sent by the 1st Additional District & Sessions Judge, Vaishali at Hajipur stating therein that processes were issued 2 against the petitioner under Sections 82 and 83 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. No date has been noted in the said report with respect to the date on which the processes were issued or the steps that were taken by the prosecution to pursue this matter which is pending for the past 13 years. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that at the time when the occurrence took place the age of the petitioner was about 18 to 19 years and he had taken his secondary education examination from Kolkata in the year 1991-92. His date of birth in the matriculation certificate is 14.12.1977. Learned counsel also refers to the Identity Card which has been issued from Kolkata and the Ration Card in the name of the petitioner. It is submitted that the petitioner lives at Kolkata and he only came to know about the case when processes were issued and steps were taken under Sections 82 and 83 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is further submitted that the petitioner’s father is alive and is the head of the family and lives in the village, yet no steps were taken by the 3 prosecution to procure the attendance of the petitioner in the Court. Considering the entire facts, petitioner Bikram Singh alias Bikram Kumar Singh is directed to be released on anticipatory bail in the event of his arrest or surrender within a period of six weeks in connection with C 2 A Case No. 51 of 1995 on furnishing bail bond of rupees ten thousand with two sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of the Additional Sessions Judge, 1st, Vaishali at Hajipur subject to the conditions laid down under Section 438(2) of the Cr.P.C. Sanjay (Sheema Ali Khan, J.)