Punjab-Haryana High Court
Deepak Verma And Others vs State Of Punjab And Others on 20 March, 2012
Author: Rakesh Kumar Garg
Bench: Rakesh Kumar Garg
Crl.Misc.No.M-36803 of 2010 (O&M) 1
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
Crl.Misc.No.M-36803 of 2010 (O&M)
Date of decision:20.03.2012
Deepak Verma and others ....Petitioners
Versus
State of Punjab and others ....Respondents
CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR GARG
Present: Mr. Dilpreet Singh, Advocate,
for Mr. Navkiran Singh, Advocate, for the petitioners.
Mr. Vivek Chauhan, AAG, Punjab.
***
RAKESH KUMAR GARG, J (ORAL)
The petitioners are facing trial and are in judicial custody at Central Jail, Jalandhar.
The instant petition has been filed for issuance of direction for holding enquiry by the Sessions Judge, Jalandhar into the incident of custodial torture of the petitioners at Police Station Division No.2, Jalandhar, where they were allegedly taken from Central Jail, Jalandhar for investigation in case FIR No.164 dated 11.11.2010, registered under Sections 308/148/149 IPC at P.S.Division No.2, Jalandhar.
Notice of motion was issued on 15.12.2010.
In the reply filed on behalf of State, it was averred as under:-
1."That the petitioners were confined in Central Crl.Misc.No.M-36803 of 2010 (O&M) 2 Jail Jalandhar for the murder of Sudarshan Singh Dhillon in case FIR No.66 dated 05.3.2010 registered under Section 302/392/150/341 read with 120-B IPC and Section 25/27/54/59 Arms Act at Police Station, City Phagwara, District Kapurthala. They are also accused in case FIR No.350 dated 20.11.2006 under Section 307/324 IPC Police Station City, Phagwara, District Kapurthala, case FIR No.15 dated
12.01.2010 under section 307/120-B/34 IPC and 25/27/54/59 Arms Act PS City Phagwara, FIR No.17 dated 20.01.2010 under Section 307/120-B/34 IPC and Section 25/54/59 Arms Act at Police Station City, FIR No.128 dated 10.09.2010 under Section 336/195/120-B/34 IPC and 25/54/59 Arms Act, Police Station Banga, District Nawanshahr. The accused/petitioners are head strong persons and they had formed rival groups in Central Jail, Jalandhar. They used to quarrel with each other and had created law and order problems for the jail authorities.
2. That on 10.11.2010, at about 3 P.M., the accused/petitioners alongwith Sarabjit Singh, Maninder Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Jasbir Singh, Harpal Singh and Lovepreet Singh forming one group had sought with their opposite group consisting of Surinderpal Singh, Sunil Kali, Dinesh Gona, Manjit Singh and Sunil Kumar. They had broke open the lock of the barrack of Central Jail and had given pushes to the Staff of Central Jail, Jalandhar. They had hurled brick bats towards the opposite group to kill them the staff consisting of Munshies and Lamberdar including Jail Officers had tried to control the situation and Surjit Singh Lamberdar a convict was seriously injured. Earlier Crl.Misc.No.M-36803 of 2010 (O&M) 3 to this incident, they had also fought in the judicial lockup of the District Courts, Jalandhar. The case FIR No.164 dated 11.11.2010 under section 308/148/149 IPC was registered against the petitioners and other persons at Police Station, Division No.2, Jalandhar.
3. That the accused/petitioners were taken on production warrant under the orders of Illaqa Magistrate from Central Jail Jalandhar and a police remand fro two days was obtained from the Illaqa Magistrate for the investigation for the case. They were interrogated in the case at Police Station Division No.2, Jalandhar but no police official or any person from the public known as Kuldeep Dhillon had given any beating to the petitioners. The petitioners are head strong persons and they had concocted a false story to malign and harass the police officials who had investigated the case of murderous assault in the jail premises itself. The petitioners may have received injuries at the hands of their opposite group but they had not shown any injury to the police at the time of their arrest or at the time of their production before the Illaqa Magistrate after the expiry of the remand. The perusal of the injuries reveals that most of the injuries are complained of pain and others are superficial in nature and can easily be sustained or self suffered. The duration of the injuries described by the doctors may also tally with the date of occurrence happened in the jail. The petitioners had also introduced falsely the name of one Kuldeep Dhillon alongwith two unidentified persons but no such person had ever visited the police station during the investigation of the case.
Crl.Misc.No.M-36803 of 2010 (O&M) 4Inspector Sukhdeep Singh, SHO, Division No.2, Jalandhar named as respondent No.3 had not carried out the investigation of the case against the petitioners. The petitioners had cooked up a false story to harass and humiliate the police officials conducting the investigation of the case. Under these circumstances, the present petition is liable to be dismissed."
Thereafter, on 21.02.2012, this Court passed the following order:-
"List on 20.03.2012.
In the meantime, the learned Sessions Judge, Jalandhar is directed to inquire into the allegations made in this petition and submit a report to this Court, before the next date of hearing.
A complete copy of the paper book be sent to the learned Sessions Judge, Jalandhar, forthwith."
In compliance of the aforesaid order, the Sessions Judge, Jalandhar, submitted his enquiry report. The relevant paragraph of the aforesaid report reads thus:-
"I have gone through the evidence recorded during the enquiry. From the record, I find that on receipt of the enquiry from the Hon'ble High Court, production warrants of applicants, Deepak Verma, Jatinder Kumar alias Bobby and Ajay Joshi alias Bhinda were issued for 6.3.2012 for recording their statements. On that date, they were produced in the court and when I asked them for recording their statements, all of them stated that they do no know about the purpose of calling them in the court Crl.Misc.No.M-36803 of 2010 (O&M) 5 on that day and requested for adjournment for making their statements, which was allowed and the enquiry was adjourned to 9.3.2012. On the next dated i.e.9.3.2012, they were got produced in the court from the Central Jail, Jalandhar. Along with them, an Advocate, namely, Sh. Ramandeep Singh Sandhu, also appeared and the counsel was told that it is the preliminary enquiry and he is not supposed to assist in the enquiry. Statements of these applicants were recorded in the court and they have deposed as per their version, which is also mentioned in the petition under section 482 Cr.P.C. From the conduct of the applicants, it is itself clear that they got the time only to get prepared for making the statements in the court and the presence of the Advocate with them shows that they have got legal help for making the statements. Secondly, from the perusal of the evidence of EW8 Dr. Rama Kant Nada, I find that as per the medical examination of Jatinder Kumar, there are two injuries of black contusion on the outer of right and left eye and there are four injuries, which are simply complaining of pain, etc. Similarly, as regarding Ajay Joshi, bruises were present on both upper eye lid and abrasion was present on left arm, left elbow and bruise was present on right hand in the middle and abrasion was present on left lower leg, just above ankle. Two injuries are stated to be complaint of pain. As regarding Deepak Verma, all the injuries were regarding complaining of pain. The Doctor has given all the injuries as simple. I have also recorded statement of Inspector Sukhdeep Singh, who has mainly deposed that the FIR was registered regarding their fight with the other group of one Crl.Misc.No.M-36803 of 2010 (O&M) 6 Surinder Pal alias Sup, etc in the premises of Central Jail, Jalandhar and in that case, they were brought to the Police Station. Some of the accused of both the parties were brought on police remand and were locked together in one police lock-up and they again quarreled and fight took place between both the groups and this fact has been mentioned in the DDR dated 16.11.2010. He also produced copy of the DDR, which is Ex.CI. EW7 HC Charanjit Singh brought the DDR register on that day. HC Chain Singh, whose name was also mentioned by the applicant, Ajay Joshi, he also denied the occurrence as alleged by the applicants and stated that they themselves quarreled with each other. From the perusal of the record and copy of the DDR which is Ex.CI dated 16.11.2010, it is duly proved that the parties quarreled with each other regarding which there is a report in the DDR. There is also mention in the DDR regarding the minor injuries to these persons and others, etc. This DDR is dated 16.11.2010 and this enquiry has been marked in the year 2012. In no way it can be held that at that time, the police officials were knowing that a complaint will be filed against them or they prepared false documents for about more than one year ago. None of the applicants has stated any fact regarding the quarrel between them and the opposite group of Surinder Pal etc. in the Central Jail, Jalandhar nor they talked anything regarding the fight/quarrel took place in the police lock up, which itself shows that their version cannot be believed. In my opinion, they received the injuries due to the fight between both the groups and they have filed this complaint against the SHO and other police officials. SHO has also Crl.Misc.No.M-36803 of 2010 (O&M) 7 stated that he is not the Investigating Officer in this case or in any other case. Therefore, in my view, the applicants received the injuries in their quarrel/fight."
In view of the aforesaid enquiry report, I find no merit in this petition.
Dismissed.
March 20, 2012 (RAKESH KUMAR GARG) savita JUDGE