RJD MLC Kartik Singh gets anticipatory bail

PATNA: The Patna high court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to former law minister and RJD MLC Kartik Kumar alias Kartik Singh in an eight-year-old abduction case. A single bench of Justice Sunil Kumar Panwar, while allowing the anticipatory bail application, directed for the release of Kartik on bail "in the event of his arrest or surrender" in connection with the Bihta police station case number 859/2014.
This was the second anticipatory bail plea of Kartik in the same case filed 'under changed circumstances'.
Kartik is one of the accused in the case lodged at Bihta police station in 2014 related to abduction of one Rajeev Ranjan alias Raju Singh. The case was lodged under sections 363 (kidnapping), 364 (abduction with intention to murder), 365 (kidnapping/abducting with intention to confine wrongfully) and 34 (common intention to commit crime) of the Indian Penal Code.
The FIR was initially lodged against two named accused, including his political boss and jailed muscleman-turned-politician Anant Singh and 16 unknown perpetrators by the nephew of the victim.
It was during the investigation that Kartik was made accused after the victim took his name before the police as well as the magistrate. His anticipatory bail pleas were rejected by the lower court. The Patna high court had earlier directed him to surrender before the lower court and seek a regular bail which is granted after subjecting the accused to the judicial custody of the court.