Gurtej Singh vs. The State Of Punjab

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A

RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) Nos.7856-7859/2021

(Arising out of impugned final judgment and orders dated 13-09-2021 in CRM-M Nos. 32442/2021(O&M), 32999/2021(O&M), 28007/2021(O&M) & 32506/2021(O&M) passed by the High Court Of Punjab & Haryana At Chandigarh)

GURTEJ SINGH Petitioner(s)

VERSUS

STATE OF PUNJAB & ANR. ETC. Respondent(s)

( IA No. 44279/2022 - APPLICATION FOR PERMISSION TO FILE ADDL.DOC, IA NO.96849/2022-FOR PLACING ADDL.DOC., IA NO.96850/2022-FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T., IA No. 33622/2022 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T., IA No. 126885/2021 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T., IA No. 33620/2022 - PERMISSION TO FILE ADDL.DOCS./FACTS/ANNEXURES, IA NO.112799/2022-FOR LISTING OF MATTER,, IA NO.115025/2022-FOR PERMISSION TO FILE ADDL.DOC., IA No. 129308/2021 - PERMISSION TO FILE ADDL.DOCS./FACTS/ANNEXURES, IA NO.120686/2022-FOR NON-DELETION OF MATTER FROM TENTATIVE LIST)

Date : 01-09-2022 These matters were called on for hearing today.

CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANIRUDDHA BOSE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIKRAM NATH

For Petitioner(s)	Mr. A.P.S. Deol, Sr. Adv
	Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR
	Ms. Eliza Bar, Adv
	Mr. Tushar Bathija, Adv

For Respondent(s) Mr. Ajay Pal, AOR

• Ms. Nupur Kumar, AOR Ms. Diksha Dadu, Adv.
• Mr. Vikram Chaudhr, Sr.Adv. Mr. Rishi Sehgal, Adv. Ms. Manju Jetley, AOR Ms. Arveen Sekhon, Adv.

Ms. Parbhneer Swani, Adv. Hargun Sandhu, Adv.

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R

Heard learned senior counsel/counsel for the parties.

The orders granting anticipatory bail to respondent no.2/Titi Sharma in SLP (Crl.) No.7856/2021, respondent no.2/Harmandeep Singh in SLP (Crl.) No.7857/2021, and orders granting regular bail to respondent no.2/Narinder Pal Singh in SLP (Crl.) No.7858/2021, respondent no.2/Paramjit Singh & respondent no.3/Gurpreet Singh @ Gopi in SLP (Crl.) No.7859/2021, are questioned in these four petitions. All these petitions are being disposed of by this common order.

These cases arise out of an incident resulting death of two individuals and injuries caused to two others on the eve of the election for Municipal Committee at Moga in the State of Punjab on 09.02.2021. The alleged assailants and the deceased as also the injured persons appear to belong to rival political parties. The petitioner before us in these proceedings is the husband of a candidate in the said election. It was on the basis of his F.I.R. the investigation had commenced over the offending acts. Allegations against the accused persons is that they were in four vehicles which were driven over or through a group of individuals who had gathered there. There are also allegations of assault by the persons who had reached the place of occurrence in the said vehicles.

Several persons have been arraigned as accused in the case. The aforesaid three accused persons were released on bail while the two persons named above were granted pre-arrest bail by the High Court by an order passed on 13th September 2021. Two among the accused persons, Arshdeep Singh and Jaslovepreet Singh were denied anticipatory bail by the High Court.

On going through the materials, we do not think a case for interference with the order impugned, granting anticipatory bail and regular bail to the aforesaid accused persons, has been made out. The High Court has applied its mind and given reason in support of the decision to grant regular bail and pre-arrest bail while denying relief to two other accused persons against whom there were allegations of involvement.

Learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioner has brought to our attention certain parts of order in which observations have been made as regards the nature of the offence and involvement of the accused. Such observations obviously shall not influence the Trial Court.

There was also reference to a report of Special Investigation Team (for short "the SIT"), which has been quoted in the impugned judgment. Learned senior counsel for the petitioner has questioned the sanctity of the said report. At this stage and in this proceeding, we are not entering into that aspect of the controversy. The High Court has not solely based its order on the said report and considered other materials and circumstances also.

With these observations, the present batch of petitions shall stand dismissed.

3

Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.

(NIRMALA NEGI) (VIDYA NEGI)

COURT MASTER (SH) ASSISTANT REGISTRAR