Patna HC orders CBI probe into man's disappearance after police detention
The Patna High Court has ordered a CBI probe into the disappearance of a man who went missing after being detained by Excise Police officials
The Patna High Court has ordered a CBI probe into the disappearance of a man who went missing after being detained by Excise Police officials in Bihar's Bhojpur district one year ago. The court said the police investigation was biased and that investigators failed to show urgency after an FIR was registered. The case relates to Sanoj Kumar, a centring mason, who was allegedly detained on August 13, 2025, on the charge of consuming liquor near a Kali temple. His father, Gauri Shankar Ram, moved the high court seeking a CBI investigation. Police had claimed that Sanoj jumped from a police vehicle and fled during transit. Read Full Story In its August 7 order, a division bench of Justices Rajeev Ranjan Prasad and Alok Kumar Sinha directed the CBI to take over the investigation. According to the order, Sanoj called his family on the evening of August 13, 2025, and said police had caught him on allegations of consuming liquor near a Kali temple.
He called again and told them police personnel were beating him "mercilessly", after which the call got disconnected. His father lodged a complaint at Bihiya police station the next day to find out his son's whereabouts. The court noted that Sanoj's motorcycle was later found abandoned near the spot where he was allegedly detained. Excise Department SI Deeraj Kumar, ASI Raju Kumar, home guards Dharmendra Paswan, Umesh Kumar Yadav and Raju Kumar, and drivers Raju Kumar Singh, Vikash Kumar and Surendra Kumar Singh were marked as suspects by the police. Describing the matter as one of the "rare and exceptional cases", the court said it required transfer to an independent agency such as the CBI, particularly as several Excise Police officials were suspects and progress over the past year had been slow. "Bias on the part of the state investigating agency may be clearly deduced from their inaction," the bench observed, adding that two accused ASIs were in a "position to influence the investigation".
The court said it had "no iota of doubt" that the state agency had failed to act with urgency after the FIR was lodged. The court said local witnesses were not examined promptly, material witnesses were not produced before a magistrate, and meaningful steps to question suspects and collect scientific evidence were not taken for a considerable period. It also recorded that Excise officials repeatedly changed their version before finally stating that five people had been detained, two of whom were released after a breath-analyser test. According to that version, the remaining three were taken towards Bihiya Chaurasta in a police vehicle, but one of them jumped out and escaped. The bench observed that the doors of the vehicle were closed from the outside and said nobody could have jumped out unless the rear door had been opened. The order also noted that the investigation found there had been a scuffle involving Sanoj and the excise vehicle's private driver, who had put a towel around the detainee's neck and pulled him.
The BriefWire