The Punjab and Haryana High granted bail to a 23-year-old student accused of funding and providing arms and ammunition to separatists and held that the petitioner is a 23-year-old young student and was aspirant to study further in Canada and his entire life and career is at stake and the petitioner is being kept in preventive custody merely on an unfounded suspicion that if he is let out, he may either tamper with evidence but the same has already been seized by the investigating agency.

Brief Facts:

The petitioner along with several other persons had been accused of funding and providing arms and ammunition to separatists at the instance of ISI and the state accusing them of being followers of Khalistan ideology lodged an FIR under sections 153, 153-A, 212, 216, 120-B IPC, Section 21 of the NDPS Act and Section 25 of the Arms Act.

Contentions of the Applicant:

The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner contended that the petitioner had been falsely implicated and the petitioner had nothing to do with the alleged illegal activities and there was not even an iota of evidence against the petitioner confirming his complicity with accused persons. It was further argued that nothing was to be recovered from the petitioner and no useful purpose would be served by keeping him behind bars.

Contentions of the Respondent:

The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the state contended that the petitioner had committed a serious offence and as per the custody certificate, the petitioner is suspected to be involved in two more cases and he might tamper with evidence or influence the witnesses if released on bail.

Observations of the Court:

The court observed that charges were yet to be presented in the case and investigation is complete qua petitioner, he is thus not required for custodial interrogation and allegations against the petitioner are a matter of trial at this stage and the conclusion of the trial is likely to take a long time as it is proceeding at a snail pace. It was further stated that there are a total of 22 witnesses, out of them none have been examined since the charges are not framed so far and the petitioner has been in jail for the last eleven months.

The court stated that the petitioner is being kept in preventive custody merely on an unfounded suspicion that if he is let out, he may either tamper with evidence or influence witnesses but there is no probability of same since the same has already been seized by the investigating agency.

The court further observed that the petitioner is a 23-year-old young student and was aspirant to study further in Canada and his entire life and career are thus at stake while he continues to be in preventive custody. It was further stated that the co-accused of the petitioner had been granted bail even though his case was on a much higher pedestal.

The decision of the Court:

The court allowed the petition and granted bail to the petitioner.

Case Title: Gurlal Singh @ Lali vs. State of Punjab

Case No.: CRM-M-9325-2023 (O&M)

Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Arun Monga

Advocate for the Applicant: Mr. A.D.S. Jattana

Advocate for the Respondent: Ms. Guramrit Kaur

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Kritika