THE GAUHATI HIGH COURT (HIGH COURT OF ASSAM v. THE STATE OF ASSAM

Advocate for the Petitioner : MR A HAWARI, MR. R ISLAM Advocate for the Respondent : PP, ASSAM, BEFORE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ANJAN MONI KALITA

01.12.2025 ORDER Heard Mr. A. Hawari, learned counsel appearing for the accused applicant and Mr. K. K. Parasar, learned Addl. PP for the State of Assam.

#2. This is an application under Section 482 of BNSS, 2023 praying for granting pre-arrest bail to the accused applicant in connection with Page No.# 2/3 Lahowal P.S. Case No. 112/2025 under Section 303 (2) of BNS, 2023 read with Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and Section 15 (2) of the Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Amendment Act, 2011.

#3. The gist of the case is that on receipt of an information, the Police apprehended a vehicle bearing registration No. AS-06CC-4883 and brought the same to Lahowal Police Station whose driver is Shri Sankar Gowala and one Passenger Ajit Kumar Yadav. Upon interrogation, it was found that some plastics bottles containing condensate suspected to be stolen and on intimation, the Police recovered large quantity of condensate from plastics bottles containing 41 numbers of cartoons containing each 32 nos. of 750 ml (approx). It was also stated that a total 33 plastic bag containing approx 150 empty plastic bottles of 300 ml each which were suspected to be used for bottling the said condensate oil, were recovered. On interrogation, it was found that the factory is owned by the accused applicant. Accordingly, the Police filed the FIR dated 10.09.2025 and arrested three accused persons, namely, Ajit Kumar Yadav, Raju Sahu and Sankar Gowala who have already been granted bail by the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Dibrugarh.

#4. The learned counsel appearing for the accused applicant submits that he is not linked with the stolen goods and in fact, the goods were kept in his factory without his knowledge. He further submits that the vehicle which belongs to him was also given on Zimma to the accused applicant. He submits that since the stolen materials have already been recovered and the vehicle has already been given on Zimma, moreover, the co- accuseds have already been granted bail by the learned Trial Court, the Page No.# 3/3 instant Anticipatory Bail Application should also be allowed.

#5. This Court has gone through the materials brought on record and considering that the stolen materials have already been recovered, the vehicle on Zimma as well as the co-accuseds have already been granted bail, this Court is of the considered opinion that this is a fit case, wherein, the accused applicant, namely, Mukul Kumar Sah should be granted pre-arrest, at this stage, subject to his furnishing bail bond of Rs.30,000/- along with a surety of like nature to the satisfaction of the Investigating Officer of the case in Lahowal P.S. Case No. 112/2025. However, bail shall be subject to the following conditions:- (i) that the accused applicant shall appear before the I.O. of the case within a period of 7 (seven) days of passing of this order and shall co-operate with the investigation; (ii) that the accused applicant shall not, directly or indirectly, make any attempt to influence the witnesses or tamper with evidence or induce any person acquainted with the facts of the case to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the Police or the Court; and In view of the aforesaid directions, this Anticipatory Bail Application is disposed of as allowed. JUDGE Comparing Assistant