Sikander Singh And Others vs State Of Punjab

Pankaj Jain, J

The afore-captioned petitions have been filed by the petitioners under Section 439 Cr.P.C. seeking grant of regular bail pending trial in case FIR No.0046, dated 27th of May, 2021 registered at Police Station Rampura, District Bathinda.

The FIR came into being on the statement made by Harwinder Singh alias Coach son of Dev Singh, the deceased. The correct translation of the FIR as has been reproduced in CRM-M No.41066 of 2022 reads as under :

“It is stated that I am resident of above mentioned address and do agriculture and also a Kabaddi Player. Some days before a rooster was picked up by Ganga Singh and Babbu Singh son of Gela Singh, resident of Chauke from the house of my uncle Makhan Singh son of Kartar Singh. Owing to this reason, my uncle Makhan Singh made complaint to Gela Singh. For this complaint, Babbu Singh and Gagna Singh feel jealous, I used to help my uncle Makhan Singh. Yesterday on 26.5.2021 we had an altercation with Gagna Singh and Babbu Singh and they threatened me that they will see me then at about 6/7 p.m. in the evening I along with my friend Satpal Singh son of Binder Singh, Jaswinder Singh @ Jassa son of Bant Singh, Hardeep Singh @ Deepi son of Teja Singh, Satpal Singh @ Kala son of Naib Singh, residents of Chauke, my friend Boota Singh son of Balwinder Singh, resident of Chauke were talking with each other by sitting on the motorcycle at Pithon road, then Gurjeet Singh son of Binder Singh armed with Gandasa, Babbu Singh son of Gela Singh armed with Dang, Gagna Singh son of Gela Singh armed with Kirpan, Seepu Singh son of Binder Singh armed with baseball and Keepa Singh son of Darshan Singh armed with pistol, residents of Chauke came in the field and started raising lalkaras then Boota Singh and Satnam Singh due to fear ran away from the spot. Meanwhile, the above mentioned persons started beating us. Keepa Singh above mentioned pointed his pistol towards me and then Gurjeet Singh who was holding Gandasa in his hand hit Gandasa blow upon my right leg below the knee and I fell down. While I was lying down Seepu Singh hit baseball blow upon my left leg; Babbu Singh hit dang blow on my left hand. Thereafter, Gurjeet Singh gave Gandasa blow from its reverse side upon my left shoulder, thereafter, to rescue me Jaswinder Singh, Hardeep Singh and Satpal Singh came forward then Satpal Singh received kirpan blow upon his left hand and Gandasa blow from its reversed side upon his right leg given by Gurjeet Singh and Seepu Singh gave baseball blow upon his left knee and thereafter Gurjeet Singh gave gandasa blow on left leg ankle of Satpal. Thereafter, Hardeep Singh also received injuries on his left arm, right knee, backside, left arm and right hand caused by the above mentioned persons with their respective weapons and Jaswinder Singh @ Jassa also received injuries on his left arm with Gandasa given by Gurdeep Singh, dang blow on head by Babbu, baseball blow on backside of head by Seepu and dang blow by Babbu, thereafter, Boota Singh and Satnam Singh above mentioned raised raula after going at some distance and we also raised raula 'Marta Marta'. 15/20 more unknown persons were also with them, who raised lalkaras. Upon raising our raula, they all ran away from the spot along with their respective weapons and while going they also damaged my motorcycle without number make CT100, motorcycle of Satpal Singh's make CT100, motorcycle of Jaswinder Singh @ Jassa make Splendor of silver colour and motorcycle of owner of the field namely Boota Singh make CD DOWN bearing No.9751 with dangs. Thereafter, our relatives after arranging conveyance got us admitted in Civil Hospital, Rampura for treatment. Motive is that at day time an altercation took place between me and Babbu, Gagna sons of Gela Singh, residents of Chauka in respect of cock. Owing to this reason, the above mentioned persons have us injuries. We are claimants. Sd/- Action be taken. I have got recorded the statement, heard and is corred. Sd/- Harwinder Singh.xxx”

Custody Certificates of the petitioners have been produced today in Court, which are taken on record. As per the same, the custody faced by each of them is tabulated as under :

Case No.

Name of the petitioner

Actual custody undergone

CRM-M-41066-2022

Sikander Singh

2 years, 7 months and 7 days

CRM-M-12205-2023

Maninder Singh

2 years and 7 months

CRM-M-3035-2022

Balkaran Singh

2 years and 7 months

CRM-M-47856-2022

Gurdeep Singh @ Sipy

2 years, 4 months and 28 days

CRM-M-57650-2023

Baljinder Singh @ Kalu

2 years, 6 months and 28 days

CRM-M-65438-2023

Chamkaur Singh

2 years, 7 months and 7 days

Out of aforesaid 6 accused/petitioners, 4 namely Sikander Singh, Maninder Singh, Balkaran Singh and Baljinder Singh @ Kalu are stated to have clean antecedents. Petitioner Gurdeep Singh @ Sipy is facing four FIRs under the NDPS Act and one under Sections 325, 323 IPC. Likewise, the 6th Chamkaur Singh, is also facing two more FIRs for offences punishable under Sections 324, 323 IPC.

Counsels for the petitioners submit that almost all the petitioners have suffered incarcerations for more than 2 years and 7 months. Challan already stands presented and out of 59 cited witnesses, 7 stand examined. Thus, there can't be any such apprehension that the petitioners shall tamper with the evidence.

Apart from that it has been contended on merits that none of the petitioners has been attributed any injury/overt act by the deceased on whose statement the FIR was registered. The only allegation is that the petitioners were among 15/20 unknown persons.

Counsel for the complainant while opposing the bail pleas however submits that it is a well organized gang and all of them were part of the unlawful assembly played their role in commission of the crime.

State Counsel submits that Gurdeep Singh @ Sipy and Chamkaur Singh being habitual offenders do not deserve grant of bail and keeping in view the seriousness of the allegations levelled in the FIR, the present bail pleas deserve to be dismissed.

Having heard counsels for the parties and after carefully going through records of the case, without further commenting on the merits thereof and apart from the fact that from the perusal of the statement of the deceased, it is evident that the deceased was specific in attributing each of the injury on his person on part of the accomplices and he has not attributed any of the injuries to any of the petitioners in the present petitions. So far as the grudge of the complainant w.r.t. uploading of the pics, video recordings on the social media is concerned, counsel for the complainant admits that uploading thereof is not act of any of the present petitioners.

In view of above, keeping in view the incarceration already suffered by the petitioners and the act alleged against them, the present petitions are allowed. The petitioners are ordered to be released on bail on their furnishing separate bail bonds/surety bonds to the satisfaction of the Trial Court/Duty Magistrate concerned.

Needless to say that anything observed hereinabove shall not be construed to be an expression of opinion on the merits of the case.

Pending applications, if any, shall also stand disposed off.

A copy of this order be kept on the files of other connected cases.