Manoj Kumar Jha v. State (NCT of Delhi)

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.

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 having been granted an interim protection in the said proceedings, but also tested the strength of the remaining arguments of the accused/applicant after traversing through the remaining 12 cases of similar offences registered against the accused/applicant in not just Delhi, but also in Kolkata, Bihar and Punjab.

5. After dismissal of the earlier anticipatory bail application, there is no change in circumstances. Having examined the order dated 12.11.2024 of the coordinate bench, I find no reason to take a different view.

6. Accordingly, the Bail Application and the accompanying application are dismissed.

GIRISH KATHPALIA (JUDGE) JULY 7, 2025 ‘rs’ GIRISH KATHPALIA