MANOJ KUMAR JHA vs STATE (NCT OF DELHI)

Judgment text excerpt

$~59 * IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI % Date of Decision: 07.07.2025 + BAIL APPLN. 2397/2025 & CRL.M.A. 19059/2025 MANOJ KUMAR JHA .....Petitioner Through: Mr. Aditya Kapoor, Advocate versus STATE (NCT OF DELHI) .....Respondent Through: Mr. Ritesh Kumar Bahri, APP for the State with Ms. Divya Yadav, Advocate with SI Uttam Singh CORAM: JUSTICE GIRISH KATHPALIA JUDGMENT (ORAL) 1. The accused/applicant seeks anticipatory bail in case FIR No. 81/2024 of PS Parliament Street for offence under Section 204, BNS 2023. 2. Broadly speaking, the allegation against the accused/applicant is that he impersonated as an IAS officer and collected sensitive information. 3. Learned APP accepts notice and points out that earlier, a similar anticipatory bail application of the accused in the same FIR was dismissed vide order dated 12.11.2024 of a coordinate bench of this Court. That being so, according to the prosecution the present anticipatory bail application is not even maintainable. BAIL APPLN. 2397/2025 Page 1 of 2 pages GIRISH Digitally signed by GIRISH KATHPALIA Signature Not Verified KATHPALIA Date: 2025.07.07 17:42:34 +05'30' Digitally Signed By:NEETU N NAIR Signing Date:07.07.2025 17:50:07 4. Learned counsel for the accused/applicant contends that the earlier anticipatory bail application was dismissed because the accused/applicant could not join the investigation. But that does not appear to be so. It is not just because of failure of the accused/applicant to join investigation that the anticipatory bail application was rejected. The coordinate bench in order dated 12.11.2024, while dismissing the earlier anticipatory bail application (Bail Application No. 3337/2024), not only arrived at the finding that the accused/applicant did not join the investigation despite havin