Punjab-Haryana High Court
Gurmeet Singh vs State Of Punjab on 14 March, 2024
Author: Anoop Chitkara
Bench: Anoop Chitkara
Neutral Citation No:=2024:PHHC:036826
CRM-M-12226-2024 2024:PHHC:036826
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
105 CRM-M-12226-2024
Date of Decision: 14.03.2024
Gurmeet Singh ...Pe oner
Versus
State of Punjab ...Respondent
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANOOP CHITKARA
Present: Ms. Gurmeet Kaur Dhillon, Advocate for the pe oner.
Ms. Swa Batra, D.A.G., Punjab.
(Through video conferencing).
****
ANOOP CHITKARA, J.
FIR No. Dated Police Sta.on Sec.ons
189 30.11.2023 Sadar Pa1, District 7-A, 8 of PC (Amendment)
Tarn Taran Act, 2018 (Sec on 120-B IPC
added later on)
1. The pe oner apprehending the arrest in the FIR cap oned above, has come up before this Court under Sec on 438 CrPC seeking bail.
2. Vide order dated 07.03.2024, this Court had granted interim bail to the pe oner which is con nuing ll date.
3. Short reply dated 14.03.2024 filed by State counsel today in the Court is taken on record. Copy thereof has been supplied to counsel for the pe oner.
4. The prosecu on's case is being taken from reply dated 14.03.2024 filed by the concerned Deputy Superintendent of Police, which reads as follows:
2. That in compliance to the order dated 07.03.2024, it is most respec ully submi ed that ini ally FIR No. 189 dated 30.11.2023 under sec on 7-A/8 of Preven on of Corrup on Act 1988 and (Amendment Act, 2018) has been registered in Police Sta on Sadar, Pa0 against Balwinder Kaur wife of Gurdial Singh as well as Ranjit Singh alias Rana son of Baj Singh, resident of village Ghariala, PS:Sadar Pa0, at the instance of Jaspal Singh, DSP(SD) Pa0. The brief facts are that there was a audio viral on the social media exploring that one lady was talking with another person that they have se led with him for doing the work in a sum of Rs.1 lac and they have already paid a sum of Rs.50,000/- out of which Rs.25000/- has been transferred in the account and during the course of 1 1 of 4 ::: Downloaded on - 16-03-2024 11:49:15 ::: Neutral Citation No:=2024:PHHC:036826 CRM-M-12226-2024 2024:PHHC:036826 inves ga on it was found that the lady talking on the telephone was Balwinder Kaur and person with whom she was talking was Ranjit Singh @ Rana son of Baz Singh, resident of village Gharyala and in this regard it was also published in the newspaper that leader of Aam Adami Party was found involved making the illegal gra fica on of Rs.50,000/- which was also published in the newspaper and the FIR was registered.
During the course of inves ga on, the daughter of Balwinder Kaur accused namely Sumanpreet Kaur produced the said mobile phone used in the conversa on make Redmi Note 9 Pro, IMEI no.869009046507415, 869009046507443, sim no.95927-31951 and the other mobile phone Oppo A77S, IMEI no.866451062517972, 866451062517964, sim no.70874-31951 and the same were taken into possession by the police as a evidence vide separate memo.
3. That aCer the grant of interim an cipatory bail to Balwinder Kaur accused in the present case by this Hon'ble Court, she joined the inves ga on before the police and admi ed that the audio, which was recorded by her, the same has been recorded at the instance of Gurmeet Singh (pe oner) journalist son of Jassa Singh r/o Valtoha. She further disclosed that the said journalist (pe oner) has sent the said recording from her mobile to his mobile and thereaCer got it viral in the social media. She further disclosed that she had talked with Ranjit Singh alias Rana on phone at the asking of said Gurmeet Singh (pe oner) and send Rs.25000/- through Payphone. Thus vide rapat no.044 dated 02.01.2024, Gurmeet Singh (pe oner) has been nominated as accused in this case and offence u/s 120-B IPC has been added in the FIR.
4. That since in the news paper as well as in the viral audio, there was conversa on qua the giving of bribe to SI PS:Sadar Pa0 and Chowki Incharge Ghariala and as such during the course of inves ga on, the Inves ga ng agency has also taken into possession the Samsung Mobile IMEI no.358818746530180, 359210306530181 of SI Gurtej Singh as well as one another mobile phone make Oppo. IMEI no.862892061249618, 862892061249600 of ASI Kirpal Singh through separate memos. ThereaCer the mobile phones i.e. Redmi Note 9 Pro, IMEI nο.869009046507415, 869009046507443, sim no.95927-31951 and the other mobile Oppo phone A77S, IMEI nо.866451062517972, 866451062517964, sim no.70874-31951, which were produced by Sumanpreet Kaur daughter of Balwinder Kaur as well as the aforesaid two mobile phones of SI Gurtej Singh and ASI Kirpal Singh were sent to Computer Forensic Lab, State Cyber Crime, Punjab, Phase IV, SAS Nagar (Mohali) vide docket no.68187/B dated 30.12.2023 for the purpose of examina on. The said mobile phones have been duly received in the aforesaid office vide order no.536/2021 dated 1.1.2024. However a separate nature of Examina on form has also sent by men oning therein the details of the 2 2 of 4 ::: Downloaded on - 16-03-2024 11:49:16 ::: Neutral Citation No:=2024:PHHC:036826 CRM-M-12226-2024 2024:PHHC:036826 parcels as well as the informa on required along with the form qua nature of crime. The report of the said analysis is yet to be received.
5. That the pe oner played a major role in the aforesaid case as Balwinder Kaur accused admi ed that the audio, which was recorded by her, the same has been recorded at the instance of pe oner and further pe oner has sent the said recording from her mobile to his mobile and thereaCer got it viral in the social media. Thus the audio goes viral from the mobile of pe oner, which is yet to be recovered from him. Thus the custodial interroga on of the pe oner is required in this case to know about other antecedents. Further Balwinder Kaur also admi ed that she had talked with Ranjit Singh alias Rana on phone at the asking of said Gurmeet Singh (pe oner) and send Rs.25000/- through Payphone. Thus it will not be out of place to men on here that the inves ga on is s ll under pipeline and to complete the inves ga on to its logical end, the custodial interroga on of the pe oner is required in order to recover the mobile phone from which the pe oner got viral the said audio.
6. That the pe oner has since joined the inves ga on with the Inves ga ng agency on 11.03.2024 and the mobile phone make MI Redmi-5 along with sim no.85910-50008, IMEI no.868200039320509, 8682000393320517 from where the audio was viral by the pe oner was taken into possession by the police from him vide separate memos. However on checking of the data of the said mobile phone rela ng to whatsapp and other storage devices qua the said audio recording, no data or audio recording was found stored in the same. Further the recovered mobile phone along with sim card etc. will be sent for analysis to the concerned lab in due course of me.
5. I have heard counsel for the par es and gone through the pe on as well as reply and its analysis would lead to the following outcome.
6. State counsel opposes the bail on the ground that the pe oner is not properly coopera ng with the inves gator as men oned in para 6 of the reply. However, counsel for the pe oner submits that the pe oner would fully cooperate and on this ground alone, bail should not be cancelled.
7. Considering the fact that the pe oner is a journalist and the allega ons against him are prima facie commission of offence punishable under Sec on 120-B IPC, as such, it is neither a case for pre-trial incarcera on nor custodial interroga on of the pe oner.
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8. Given above, the present pe on is allowed and interim order dated 07.03.2024 is made absolute. All pending miscellaneous applica ons, if any, stand disposed of.
(ANOOP CHITKARA)
JUDGE
14.03.2024
Jyo -II
Whether speaking/reasoned: Yes
Whether reportable: No.
Neutral Citation No:=2024:PHHC:036826
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