Gurmeet Singh vs State Of Haryana

Gurvinder Singh Gill, J

The petitioner seeks grant of regular bail in respect of a case registered against him vide FIR No. 69 dated 28.01.2022 at Police Station 32-33, Karnal, under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B, 201 IPC, Sections 7, 7A, 8 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 12 of the Passport Act, 1967.

The allegations, in nutshell, are that the accused had been facilitating issuance of passports to various persons on the basis of forged documents. The petitioner is stated to be one such person to whom passport had been issued on the basis of fake documents.

Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner has submitted that he has falsely been implicated in the present case and that in any case, the passport had been issued to petitioner after following due procedure including verification by the police. It has also been submitted that the petitioner came to be nominated in the instant FIR on account of the disclosure statement suffered by co-accused.

On the other hand, learned State counsel while opposing the petition has submitted that the petitioner had given an amount of Rs.2,60,000/- for the purpose of issuance of a Passport, to co-accused Sunil Lamba and since the petitioner had furnished fake and bogus document for the purpose of issuance of Passport, his complicity is clearly evident. It has further been submitted that the petitioner stands involved in 5 other cases and the purpose of getting a Passport issued on the basis of bogus documents was to flee from country. It has been informed that the petitioner otherwise has been behind bars since the last more than 1 year and charges are yet to be framed and as many as 30 PWs have been cited.

This Court has considered rival submissions.

Without commenting anything as regards the merits of the case, but having regard to the custody of the petitioner, which is more than 1 year and also the fact that conclusion of trial is likely to take some time inasmuch as the trial has not even commenced till date and as many as 30 PWs have been cited, further detention of the petitioner will not serve any useful purpose. The petition, as such, is accepted and the petitioner is ordered to be released on bail subject to his furnishing bail bonds to the satisfaction of learned trial Court/Chief Judicial Magistrate/Duty Magistrate concerned.