IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Cr.Misc. No.32167 of 2009 MANISH KUMAR, Son of Shambhu Singh, resident of Village-Balathi Gaussi, P.S. Sahebganj, District- Muzaffarpur. Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR ----------- 2 10/9/2009 Heard counsel for the petitioner and counsel for the State. Prayer for bail of the petitioner has been rejected by this Court on merits by order dated 20.4.2009 in Cr. Misc. No. 49168 of 2008 and therefore there would be no reason for this Court to reconsider prayer for bail of the petitioner on merits. Counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner is in custody since 28.8.2008 and therefore he has completed a period of more than one year of his judicial custody and as such becomes entitled for grant of bail. He has further submitted that the petitioner has no criminal antecedent and nothing was recovered from his conscious possession. This Court would find that there are only three accused persons named in the First Information Report out of which two of them, namely, Santlal Mahto and Rakesh Singh have already granted bail by this Court. This Court, however, has distinguished the case of co-accused Santlal Mahto with that of the petitioner on the ground that while the petitioner was apprehended at the spot after chase, name of co-accused Santlal Mahto had surfaced only on the basis of confessional statement. On appreciation of the aforementioned aspects it would be difficult for 2 this Court to release the petitioner on bail, but then as the petitioner is in custody since more than a year and there are only three accused persons facing charge under section 392 of the Indian Penal Code, triable by a court of Magistrate, the trial court is directed to ensure that trial of the petitioner is concluded within a period of nine months from today. In the event, trial will not be concluded in the aforementioned period of nine months only on account of laches and lapses on the part of the prosecution, in that event the petitioner shall have liberty to renew his prayer for bail before this Court only after approaching the court below. With the aforementioned observations/directions this application is dismissed. Abhay Kumar (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)