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3. The State opposes the bail.

4. That the prosecution case, in brief, is that during the course of inquiry of the complaint bearing no.23/2022 Ludhiana filed by complainants Honey Kumar, it was found that in the year 2020-21, Food and Supply Department Punjab had issued certain 1 of 8 Neutral Citation No:=2023:PHHC:082789 Transportation and Labour Cartage Policies after getting approval from the Punjab Cabinet for transportation and labour cartage work of the wheat/paddy/stock articles. As per these policies, the Director, Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Disputes Punjab had got advertised some advertisements in the newspapers inviting tenders. For the purpose of allotting tenders, District Tender Committee was constituted and the Chairman of this committee was to be the Deputy Commissioner of the concerned district or any other official appointed by him not less than the rank of Deputy Director, Field Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Disputes and the District Managers of the Purchase agencies were to be its members. For the year 2020-21 tender allotment committee of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar consisted of Shrimati Rajnish Kumari, Deputy Director (field) Food Civil Supplies and consumer affairs department, Jallandhar Division, Jallandhar, Chairman of Tender Allotment Committee, Shri Rakesh Bhaskar, District Controller, Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Convener, who is dead), Shri Janak Raj, District Manager PUNSUP, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Member), Shri Karandeep Singh, District Manager warehouse, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Member), Shri Sanjeev Chopra, District manager Markfed, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Member), Shri Tapas Ranjan Sethi, District manager FCI, Jalandhar (Members). In the same way during year 2022-23 Secretary of allotment committee, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Food Civil Supplies and consumer affairs department, Punjab had appointed Shri Tarvinder Singh Chopra, Deputy Director (Field) Food Civil Supplies and consumer affairs department, Jalandhar Division, Jalandhar as chairman of tender allotment committee and Shrimati Madhu, District Controller, Food Civil Supplies and consumer affairs, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar as convener and Shri Sarabjit Singh, District manager PUNSUP, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Member), Shri Sukhwinder Singh, District manager warehouse, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Shri Sachin Garg, District manager, Markfed, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Member), Shri Aridam Chaudhary, District Manager, FCI Jalandhar (Member). These committees got of their respective clusters at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. As per the Clause (6) of transportation policy and Clause (7) of Labour Cartage policy in order to properly manage the wheat and paddy crop during Rabbi and Kharif season, tenders were called from all the clusters. The tenders were to be filed online. Necessary eligibility guidelines were duly issued. As per the policy of 2019-20, the capacity of the cluster was fixed based on the income from wheat, but as per the clause 5(C) of the policy for the year 2020-21 given by Food Supply Department, Chandigarh, the capacity will be fixed from the income of Wheat/paddy, whichever is more. Because of the capacity of cluster (turnover) increased and competition decreased. Due to this there was a rise in rates of some clusters and many contractors could not participate in this. Honey Kumar, president of The RS Co-operative Labour and construction society, Kariam road, Nawanshahr, his society had filed tender for labour at basic rate in year 2020-21 2 of 8 Neutral Citation No:=2023:PHHC:082789 from Nawanshahr and Raho cluster and PG godown, Nawanshahr. But the department rejected it and the tender of Nawanshahr was allotted to Telu Ram at 71% higher rate and Rahon Cluster at 72 % higher rate. Then in year 2022-23 he through his society again filed tender for labour from Nawanshahr and Raho cluster. The tender allotment committee again rejected his tender at basic rate and the tender of Nawanshahr was allotted to Contractor Ajaypal at 73% higher rate and Rahon Cluster at 72 % higher rate. Then the list of vehicles submitted at the time of filing the tender by Contractor Telu Ram etc. in year 2020- 21 and Contactor Ajaypal in year 2022-23 were obtained and were verified from respective district transport department authority. Then it was observed that many numbers were of scooters/ motorcycles/ car, pickup, tractor trolley, closed body truck, LPG tanker and harvester etc. During investigation the gate pass for the year 2020-21 related to Telu Ram, contactor at District Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar of labour cartage of Cluster Navashehr and Raho and transportation at Navashehr-2 and for the year 2020-21 related to Yashpal, contactor at District Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar transportation at Navashehr-1 and for the year 2022-23 related to Ajaypal Singh, contactor of labour cartage and transportation of Cluster Navashehr-1 and 2 (Navashehr and Raho) were taken from the department of food supply Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. The vehicle number mentioned in the gate pass did not match with the list of vehicle numbers given by the contractors at the time of applying online. Then the vehicle numbers mentioned in the gate pass were verified from district transport department authority then it was observed that many numbers were of scooters/ motorcycles/ car, pickup, tractor trolley, closed body truck, LPG tanker and harvester etc. That these vehicles cannot be used for transportation. It was also observed that some vehicles even don't have tax paid. These things don't fulfil the rules. The mention of quantity of goods along with registration numbers of these vehicles in the gate passes prima facie indicates towards forged reporting and also appears to be a case of misappropriation of the goods. The concerned officers/officials made payments to the contractors without verifying the gate passes. In this regard, fake transportation of goods was shown on the basis of forged and fabricated documents. In view of the emerged facts, the technical bids submitted by the contractors were required to be rejected, but it was not done. The gate passes pertaining to the clusters of Telu Ram contractor, Jagroop Singh, owner/partner of M/s Gurdas Ram and Company and Sandeep Bhatia were obtained from the Food Supply Department, Ludhiana and the registration number of vehicles, mentioned in these gate passes, were got verified from the concerned Transport Authority and various registration numbers were found to be belonging to scooters/motorcycles etc. Similar allegations regarding allotment of tenders by using fake and fabricated bids, were leveled in the FIR at other places also. There are allegations of nexus between the petitioner Telu Ram and Bharat Bhushan, as duo in conspiracy with each other procured these tenders and Telu Ram paid certain 3 of 8 Neutral Citation No:=2023:PHHC:082789 amount at different times to Bharat Bhushan.