Punjab-Haryana High Court
Rishu Singla vs State Of Punjab on 9 January, 2013
Author: Paramjeet Singh
Bench: Paramjeet Singh
Crl. Misc. No. M-40911 of 2012 -1-
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT
CHANDIGARH
Crl. Misc. No. M-40911 of 2012 (O&M)
Date of decision: 09.01.2013
Rishu Singla
....Petitioner
Versus
State of Punjab
....Respondent
Crl. Misc. No. M-41315 of 2012 (O&M)
Harjinder Singh Rai
....Petitioner
Versus
State of Punjab
....Respondent
Crl. Misc. No. M-41322 of 2012 (O&M)
Jaswinder Singh
....Petitioner
Versus
State of Punjab
....Respondent
Crl. Misc. No. M-133 of 2013 (O&M)
Surinder Goyal
....Petitioner
Versus
State of Punjab
....Respondent
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PARAMJEET SINGH
1) Whether Reporters of the local papers may be allowed to
see the judgment ?.
2) To be referred to the Reporters or not ?.
3) Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest ?
Present: - Mr. A.P.S. Deol, Sr. Advocate, with
Mr. P.L. Singla, Advocate, for the petitioner
in CRM-M-40911 of 2012.
Crl. Misc. No. M-40911 of 2012 -2-
Mr. Anmol Rattan Sidhu, Sr. Advocate, with
Mr. Nandal Jindal, Advocate, for the petitioner
in CRM-M-41315 of 2012.
Mr. S.P.S. Sidhu, Advocate, for the petitioner
in CRM-M-41322 of 2012
Mr. Bipan Ghai, Sr. Advocate, with
Mr. Paras Talwar, Advocate, for the petitioner
in CRM-M-133 of 2013.
Mr. A.S. Kler, AAG, Punjab.
*****
PARAMJEET SINGH, J.
This order shall dispose of Crl. Misc. No. M-40911 of 2012, Crl. Misc. No. M-41315 of 2012, Crl. Misc. No. M-41322 of 2012 and Crl. Misc. No. M-133 of 2013, as they arise from the same FIR.
For the sake of brevity, facts are being taken from Crl. Misc. No. M-40911 of 2012.
The petitioners in the abovesaid petitions have approached this Court under Section 438 Cr.P.C. for grant of anticipatory bail in a case FIR No.7 dated 1.9.2012 registered under Sections 420/406/409 read with Section 120-B IPC and Section 13(1)(d) read with Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') at Police Station Vigilance Bureau, Ludhiana, District Ludhiana.
Brief facts of the case, as mentioned in the FIR, are to the effect that SHO Police Station Vigilance Bureau, Ludhiana, received a communication from Senior Superintendent of Police, Police Station Vigilance Bureau Range, Ludhiana, based on an inquiry conducted by Lavkesh Sharma, DFSC Punjab, Chandigarh. Under the instructions of Chief Director, Vigilance Bureau, SHO contacted the SSP, Vigilance Bureau, Ludhiana, with a technical team and disclosed that on Crl. Misc. No. M-40911 of 2012 -3- 31.8.2012, their staff had impounded four trucks. Out of those, documents of three trucks bearing registration Nos. PB-10AC-8548, HR- 39-6190 and HR-37-B-6471 were handed over by them. Forth truck was apprehended from the premises of M/s Shanti Floor and General Mills, Jugiana, which is owned by Subhash Chand son of Chiranji Lal, resident of Jamalpur, Ludhiana. Out of these three truck, 1110 gunny bags of wheat were recovered. The ownership of this wheat is with the Inspector, Punjab Agro, Machhiwara. The Vigilance Department tried to contact the concerned Inspector till 5.30 p.m. but he could not be contacted. According to the billitis issued by the truck union Machhiwara, this weat was to be delivered to PUNGRAIN, Ludhiana. DFSO, ADFSO and Incharge posted the the PUNGRAIN, Ludhiana Branch, was called at the spot and inquiries were made. Manpreet Singh, Incharge made a statement that they had no concern with the apprehended trucks. He stated that wheat should have been got lifted by the depot-holders till 25.8.2012. If the Punjab Agro has allowed to lift the wheat on 31.8.2012, they had done at this own level, PUNGRAIN has no concern with it. So far as the documents recovered from trucks i.e. gate passes etc. are concerned, these do not have signatures of anyone over them. On this, the suspicion arose and the concerned authorities were informed that the wheat under the APL Scheme (Above Poverty Line) was to be lifted by the depot-holders prior to 25.8.2012. Thereafter, the investigation started. During the investigation, petitioners along with others have been nominated as accused by the Vigilance Department. The private persons, depot-holders, and Government officials/officials of the PUNGRAIN and Punjab Agro are Crl. Misc. No. M-40911 of 2012 -4- alleged to be involved in this racket.
I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioners as well as the learned counsel for the State.
The learned counsel for the petitioners vehemently argued that their names do not figure in the FIR, recoveries of the wheat have been effected. Their custodial interrogation is not required. Vigilance authorities have failed to connect the petitioner with regard to the involvement of the petitioners and has also failed to connect with regard to the ownership of the trucks. Petitioners are not at all involved in the case.
The learned counsel for the State vehemently argued that petitioner Harjinder Singh Rai is Inspector of the Food and Supplies Department, petitioner Jaswinder Singh is also working as Inspector with the Food and Supplies Department. Their function is to issue release order to the depot-holder as per the Government APL Scheme and check the stocks of depot-holders from time to time. Petitioner Surinder Goyal is a depot-holder and petitioner Rishu Singla is a person where the trucks were off-loaded and his contact number is also mentioned on the documents/unsigned gate passes. The learned State counsel vehemently contended that there is a big scam that the APL Scheme wheat is being misused by the depot-holders, officials of the Punjab Agro, PUNGRAIN and Food Supplies Department as persons holding ration card under APL Scheme do not come to get the same from the depot-holders. The wheat for distribution among them is siphoned off in the market and the State is put to loss. So to unearth this scam, custodial interrogation of the petitioners and other concerned is Crl. Misc. No. M-40911 of 2012 -5- necessary. Without the custodial interrogation of the petitioners, names of the other persons involved in the scam will not surface. This is a common knowledge that intentionally release orders are issued late and the trucks are loaded much later. Even the record is prepared by making ante-dated entries.
I have considered the rival contentions.
It is an admitted fact that the wheat under the APL Scheme was to be dispatched in pursuance of the release order prior to 25.8.2012. Many APL families are not lifting their PDS ration from the depot- holders, which results into diversion of the commodities to the black market. In this case, the wheat stock for APL Scheme should have been released prior to 25.8.2012 but in the papers it has been shown to be released vide different release orders dated 25.8.2012 (Annexure P-2 (colly) as are attached with CRM-M-41315 of 2012). This clearly indicates that the officials by misusing their official position issued ante- dated documents so that the quota of ration under the public distribution system under the APL Scheme may not be distributed among the needy APL persons. Generally, APS Scheme quota is diverted to black-market as the persons under the APL Scheme do not take their ration. Even bogus and fake ration cards are prepared and some of the depot-holders prepare such ration cards at their own level and misuse the ration. There is widespread corruption in the public distribution system. The persons entitled to it are not getting the ration. It is the duty of the Food Inspectors to ensure that depot-holders are taking the stock well in time and the same is distributed amongst the eligible persons who are entitled to the same and the Inspectors are also required to check from time to Crl. Misc. No. M-40911 of 2012 -6- time the stocks of depot-holders as Food and Supplies Department has authority to check the depot-holders. In this case, the Food and Supply Inspectors have failed to point out why the release order was allegedly issued on the last date and thereafter the Punjab Agro and PUNGRAIN officials released the same on 31.8.2012 i.e. after the last date. It is a clear indicator of the fact that there is connivance of the officials of the Punjab Agro, PUNGRAIN, and Food Supplies Department with the depot-holders and the black-marketeers. The investigation reveals that Rishu Singla was the person to whom the entire wheat was to be supplied in black-market, the documents recovered from the truck, indicate that the wheat was to be supplied to Rishu Singla. It is a case where depot-holders, transporters, corrupt officials and black-marketeers are involved. The custodial interrogation of the petitioners and others is necessary to unearth the scam of selling the APL Scheme wheat quota in the black-market. Contention of learned counsel for the petitioners that the names of the petitioners do not figure in the FIR is untenable and as such it cannot be inferred at the threshold that they are not accused. Purpose of the FIR is to set the criminal law into motion. It is only during investigation and interrogation of the accused that many things may come out.
In view of aforesaid observations, this Court is not inclined to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioners. So all the petitions are dismissed.
(Paramjeet Singh) Judge January 09, 2013 R.S.