New Delhi: In a significant setback for expelled Janata Dal (United) MLA Anant Singh, the Supreme Court on Friday cancelled the bail granted to him in the murder case of Dularchand Yadav and directed him to surrender before the authorities by December 1.
A Bench of Justices M. M. Sundresh and Prasanna B. Varale passed the order while hearing a petition seeking cancellation of the bail that the Patna High Court had granted to Singh on March 19 this year. The Bench also directed the Bihar Police to complete its investigation into the case within four months and posted the matter for further hearing after that period.
The directions came on a plea filed by Niraj Kumar, the grandson of the deceased, who had challenged the High Court's decision to grant bail. The petition argued that the High Court had not duly considered Singh's criminal antecedents while deciding his bail application, and that the gravity of the allegations against him warranted a stricter approach.
The Supreme Court, in cancelling the bail, faulted the High Court for granting relief without properly weighing the seriousness of the charges and Singh's criminal record, according to reports of the order.
The case relates to the killing of 75-year-old Dularchand Yadav during the Bihar Assembly election campaign on October 30, 2025, in Mokama. Yadav, a former Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and a supporter of the Jan Suraaj Party, was backing Jan Suraaj candidate Piyush Priyadarshi at the time. The killing took place at Basawanchak village under the Ghoswari police station area of Mokama, during a violent clash while campaigning was under way.
Singh, the Mokama MLA, was named as the prime accused in the case and was arrested on the night of November 1, 2025, for allegedly orchestrating the killing. According to the first information report filed at Ghoswari police station, Singh and his aides allegedly dragged Yadav out of his vehicle, shot him in the leg, assaulted him and then ran over him with a sports utility vehicle.
These are allegations contained in the police case; they remain to be tested at trial, and Singh has denied wrongdoing in the matter.
The legal journey of the case has been long. After his arrest, Singh remained in custody until the Patna High Court granted him bail in March 2026. That order was challenged before the Supreme Court by Yadav's grandson through a special leave petition, which questioned whether the High Court had given adequate weight to Singh's background and to the nature of the offence.
The matter was last listed on September 29, when the apex court deferred the hearing to October 30 after counsel appearing for Singh sought an adjournment to file a counter-affidavit.
On Friday, the Bench brought that chapter to a close by cancelling the bail outright. It did, however, give Singh time to surrender. Reports said Singh's lawyer requested additional time, citing his daughter's wedding scheduled for November 24 and 25.
Taking that request into account, the court allowed him time until December 1 to surrender before the authorities. The order thus balances the prosecution's demand for custody against a personal circumstance raised on Singh's behalf, while making clear that the surrender deadline is firm.
Alongside the surrender direction, the court imposed a deadline on the investigation itself. The Bihar Police must complete its probe within four months, and the case will come up for hearing again after that period. The direction matters because the investigation has so far remained incomplete, and the court noted that the allegations would need to be examined in detail during the trial.
A time-bound probe is intended to prevent the case from drifting and to ensure that the evidence is placed before the court without undue delay.
The order also lands against a shifting political backdrop. Recently, the Janata Dal (United) expelled Mokama MLA Anant Singh and former legislator Neelam Devi for six years over alleged anti-party activities. Singh, long known as a strongman figure in Mokama politics, had contested the Mokama seat on a JD(U) ticket, and his expulsion marked a formal break with the party he represented in the Assembly.
The court's order is independent of that political development, but together the two events leave Singh facing both legal custody and political isolation. His standing in Mokama, built over years of electoral contests and local influence, will now be tested by a legal process that moves on its own timetable, regardless of political fortunes.
For the family of Dularchand Yadav, the order is a measure of vindication after months of legal contest. Niraj Kumar's petition had argued from the start that bail should not have been granted in a case of this gravity, and the Supreme Court's decision to cancel it endorses that argument at the interim stage. It does not, however, decide guilt or innocence.
That question will be answered only at trial, after the police complete their investigation and the prosecution presents its evidence in court.
The case also illustrates how bail law works in serious criminal matters in India. Bail is not an acquittal, and its cancellation is not a conviction. Courts granting bail weigh factors such as the nature of the offence, the accused's record, the risk of tampering with evidence and the likelihood of the accused appearing for trial.
When a higher court finds that those factors were not properly weighed, it can cancel the bail and direct surrender, as the Supreme Court has done here. The Patna High Court's March order, in the apex court's view, fell short on that test.
What happens next is now mapped out in the court's directions. Singh must surrender by December 1. The Bihar Police have four months to finish the investigation.
The matter returns to the Supreme Court after that period, by which time the probe should be complete and the trial can move forward on a firmer footing. For Mokama, where the killing took place during an election campaign exactly a year ago, the case remains a reminder of the violence that has at times shadowed the region's politics — and of the long road from a campaign clash to a courtroom verdict.
(Reporting based on The Hindu and The New Indian Express.)