Bihar court orders accused to plant trees

Police had registered a case against the accused for assaulting a villager in March 2001

Patna: A local court in Bihar has asked four persons to plant five fruit-bearing trees in the court premises to get bail in a 14-year-old case involving physical assault and gross misconduct.

The accused had been absconding for the past 14 years since the case was lodged against them.

The order which was passed by judicial magistrate of the Madubani district court Manvdedra Mishra on Friday has sparked a new debate in society about the court’s thrust on conservation of the environment.

Police had registered a case against the accused persons, all residents of Singhaso village under Bisfi police station in the district, for assaulting a co-villager in March 2001. Since then, the accused had been absconding. They refused to appear in court despite several summons.

On Friday, all the accused persons surrendered in court after the latter issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against them.

Their joy new no bounds when the court granted them bail on condition that they plant at least five fruit-bearing trees in the court premises. They have been asked to plant saplings by June 25 failing which the bail order would get cancelled.

“The bail order of the accused persons will get automatically cancelled if they fail to abide by the court order,” said a government lawyer Rajkumar Mandal.

Earlier the courts in Bihar had ordered a man accused of raping and murdering a minor to do community service at a local Hindu temple every day for six months as a punishment for his crime. The accused was asked to clean temple floors, look after the shoe stand and distribute food to beggars and the poor for what the court said would ultimately reform the man.

Courtesy: Gulf News