Swaran Singh vs State of Punjab

Mehinder Singh Sullar, J.—Petitioner Swaran Singh son of Ajit Singh, has preferred the instant petition for the grant of concession of regular bail in a case registered against him along with his other co-accused, vide FIR No. 124 dated 13.8.2013 (Annexure P1), on accusation of having committed the offences punishable under sections 302, 201, 364, 120B IPC and 25 of the Arms Act, by the police of Police Station Sadar, Ludhiana.

Notice of the petition was issued to the State.

After hearing the learned counsel for parties, going through the record with their valuable assistance and after deep consideration over the entire matter, to my mind, there is no merit in the present petition in this context.

Ex facie, the arguments of learned counsel that petitioner has been falsely implicated by the complainant in this case and since there is no cogent evidence on record against him, so, he is entitled to the concession of regular bail, are not only devoid of merit but misplaced as well.

Precisely, the prosecution, inter-alia, claimed that petitioner and his other co-accused have hatched a criminal conspiracy, kidnapped and murdered Amarjit Singh, father of complainant Gurdip Singh (for brevity "the complainant") on 25.7.2013 on account of fraud committed by the petitioner with the deceased in executing the agreement to sell the land. The agreement to sell bears the signatures of Amit Kumar, Amarjit Singh (deceased) as vendees and petitioner as a witness. The deceased wanted to expose the fraud committed by the petitioner and on that account, he was kidnapped and murdered by the accused.

Besides a clear motive, there is a positive evidence of Kirpal Singh son of Amar Singh of last seen of the deceased in the company of petitioner and his wife Sukhmeet Kaur in their Indica Car, bearing registration No. PB-19-E-2277. On his enquiry, the accused told Kirpal Singh that they are taking him to their relatives in Pirthipur (Uttar Pradesh) for showing him the land. At that time, Amarjit Singh was in intoxicated position. Not only that, there is an evidence of extra judicial confession made by the accused before PW Avtar Singh. Therefore, the chain of circumstantial evidence is complete and prima facie, the involvement of petitioner in the commission of heinous offences clearly borne out from the evidence on record.

Meaning thereby, very serious and direct allegations are assigned that petitioner and his other co-accused have hatched a criminal conspiracy, kidnapped and murdered Amarjit Singh, father of the complainant on 25.7.2013. Hence, the petitioner is not entitled to the benefit of regular bail in the obtaining circumstances of the case.

In the light of aforesaid reasons, taking into consideration the serious and direct allegations of indicated offences against him and without commenting further anything on merits, lest it may prejudice the case of either side during the course of trial of main case, as there is no merit, therefore, the instant petition for regular bail filed by the petitioner is hereby dismissed as such.

Needless to mention that nothing observed, here-in-above, would reflect, on merits of the main case, in any manner, as the same has been so recorded for the limited purpose of deciding the present petition for regular bail only.