Punjab-Haryana High Court
Sandeep Kumar @ Bunty vs State Of Punjab on 31 August, 2024
Author: Sandeep Moudgil
Bench: Sandeep Moudgil
Neutral Citation No:=2024:PHHC:113012
CRM-M-10971-2024 -1-
204
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
CRM-M-10971-2024
DECIDED ON: 31.08.2024
SANDEEP KUMAR @ BUNTY .....PETITIONER
VERSUS
STATE OF PUNJAB .....RESPONDENT
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANDEEP MOUDGIL
Present: Mr. Rahul Rampal, Advocate for
Mr. Sandeep Kumar, Advocate
for the petitioner.
Mr. Jasjit Singh Rattu, DAG, Punjab.
SANDEEP MOUDGIL, J (ORAL)
1. Relief sought
The jurisdiction of this Court has been invoked under Section
439 Cr.P.C. for grant of regular bail to the petitioner in FIR No.254, dated
16.10.2023, under Section 22 of the NDPS Act, 1985, registered at Police
Station Model Town, District Hoshiarpur.
2. Prosecution story setup in the present case as per the version in
the FIR as under:-
“To the officer In-charge, Police Station Model,
Hoshiarpur, Jai Hind, Today, I ASI, alongwith ASI
Sukhdev Singh 796/HSR, Constable Rajinder Singh No.
380/HSR, PHG Balwinder Singh No. 25930 were present
at Police Station. That ASI Gurdial Singh No. 906/HSR
investigating officer of FIR No. 169, dated 29.06.2023,
U/s 307, 326, 325, 324, 323, 341, 148, 149 of IPC, Police
Station Model Town handed over to me the confessional1 of 8
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statement of Sandeep Kumar @ Bunty son of Joginder
Pal resident of New Fatehgarh, Police Station Model
Town. The contents of the same are: – I am the resident of
the above said address. I alongwith Ajay Kumar @ Ajay
son of Chote Lal R/o Street No.3, Mohalla New
Fatehgarh, Hoshiarpur and Roopa, resident of Sunder
Nagar along with two unknown persons in connivance
cause injuries to Vijay Kumar son of Sukhwinder Kumar,
R/o Street No.2, Mohalla Sunder Nagar, Police Station
Model Town, Hoshiarpur on 21.06.2023, time around
8:15 PM at Ramu Halwai Chownk. In this, the complete
name of Roopa is Kundan @ Roopa son of Manoj Kumar
resident of Street No.2, Sunder Nagar and to earn my
livelihood I am selling drugs. Many cases are already
registered against me. That few days ago, I brought 2 Kg
charas to sell, out of which I have sold some amount of
charas and remaining charas is kept concealed in South
Wall of church, Mohalla Ram Nagar. Only I have
knowledge regarding this. I can get the same recovered.
That as per the above said confessional statement the
offence u/s 20/61/85 NDPS Act is made out against
Sandeep Kumar @ Bunty son of Joginder Pal resident of
New Fatehgarh, Police Station Model Town. On this
writing is sent to Head Munshi for registration of FIR.
The FIR number be informed after registration. The
control room be informed through wireless. I ASI along
with accompanying officials leaving for the investigation.
Sd/- Rajinder Singh 245, Police Station Model Town,
Hoshiarpur, dated 16.10.2023.”
3. Contentions
On behalf of the petitioner
Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the police has
forcibly recorded the disclosure statement of the petitioner in FIR No.169,
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wherein he stated that he along with co-accused has caused injuries to the
complainant in FIR No.169 and also stated that he is selling drugs to earn his
livelihood and few days ago, he had purchased 2 kg charas out of which
some amount of charas has been sold and remaining charas is kept in the
wall of church, Mohalla Ram Nagar, on the basis of which, the false
recovery of 1 kg 150 grams of charas has been planted upon the petitioner.
He further submits that the quantity of charas i.e. 01 kg 150 grams is
marginally over and above the commercial quantity. It has been contended
on behalf of the petitioner that nothing has been recovered from the
possession of the petitioner and is in custody since 16.01.2023. He is ready
and willing to join the investigation and cooperate with the investigating
officer, as has been asserted on behalf of the petitioner.
On behalf of the State
On the other hand, learned State counsel has produced the
custody certificate of the petitioner today in Court, which is taken on record.
He seeks dismissal of the instant petition on the ground that the petitioner is
involved in two cases, wherein in one he is not on bail and in other, he was
convicted.
4. Analysis
Be that as it may, considering the custody period i.e. 09 months
and 19 days for which the petitioner has suffered incarceration; the quantity
of contraband i.e. 01 kg 150 gram of charas is marginally over and above the
commercial quantity; nothing has been recovered from the possession of the
petitioner; investigation is complete, challan stands presented to Court on
09.04.2024, charges were framed on 16.05.2024 and out of total 10
prosecution witnesses, none has been examined so far, which is suffice for
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this Court to infer that the conclusion of trial will take a long time for which
the petitioner cannot be detained behind the bars for an indefinite period.
Reliance can be placed upon the judgment of the Apex Court
rendered in “Dataram versus State of Uttar Pradesh and another”, 2018(2)
R.C.R. (Criminal) 131, wherein it has been held that the grant of bail is a
general rule and putting persons in jail or in prison or in correction home is
an exception. Relevant paras of the said judgment is reproduced as under:-
“2. A fundamental postulate of criminal jurisprudence is
the presumption of innocence, meaning thereby that a
person is believed to be innocent until found guilty.
However, there are instances in our criminal law where a
reverse onus has been placed on an accused with regard
to some specific offences but that is another matter and
does not detract from the fundamental postulate in
respect of other offences. Yet another important facet of
our criminal jurisprudence is that the grant of bail is the
general rule and putting a person in jail or in a prison or
in a correction home (whichever expression one may
wish to use) is an exception. Unfortunately, some of these
basic principles appear to have been lost sight of with the
result that more and more persons are being incarcerated
and for longer periods. This does not do any good to our
criminal jurisprudence or to our society.
3. There is no doubt that the grant or denial of bail is
entirely the discretion of the judge considering a case but
even so, the exercise of judicial discretion has been
circumscribed by a large number of decisions rendered
by this Court and by every High Court in the country. Yet,
occasionally there is a necessity to introspect whether
denying bail to an accused person is the right thing to do
on the facts and in the circumstances of a case.
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4. While so introspecting, among the factors that need to
be considered is whether the accused was arrested during
investigations when that person perhaps has the best
opportunity to tamper with the evidence or influence
witnesses. If the investigating officer does not find it
necessary to arrest an accused person during
investigations, a strong case should be made out for
placing that person in judicial custody after a charge
sheet is filed. Similarly, it is important to ascertain
whether the accused was participating in the
investigations to the satisfaction of the investigating
officer and was not absconding or not appearing when
required by the investigating officer. Surely, if an accused
is not hiding from the investigating officer or is hiding
due to some genuine and expressed fear of being
victimised, it would be a factor that a judge would need
to consider in an appropriate case. It is also necessary
for the judge to consider whether the accused is a first-
time offender or has been accused of other offences and if
so, the nature of such offences and his or her general
conduct. The poverty or the deemed indigent status of an
accused is also an extremely important factor and even
Parliament has taken notice of it by incorporating an
Explanation to section 436 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure, 1973. An equally soft approach to
incarceration has been taken by Parliament by inserting
section 436A in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
5. To put it shortly, a humane attitude is required to be
adopted by a judge, while dealing with an application for
remanding a suspect or an accused person to police
custody or judicial custody. There are several reasons for
this including maintaining the dignity of an accused
person, howsoever poor that person might be, the
requirements of Article 21 of the Constitution and the fact
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that there is enormous overcrowding in prisons, leading
to social and other problems as noticed by this Court in
In Re-Inhuman Conditions in 1382 Prisons, 2017(4) RCR
(Criminal) 416: 2017(5) Recent Apex Judgments (R.A.J.)
408 : (2017) 10 SCC 658
6. The historical background of the provision for bail has
been elaborately and lucidly explained in a recent
decision delivered in Nikesh Tara chand Shah v. Union of
India, 2017 (13) SCALE 609 going back to the days of
the Magna Carta. In that decision, reference was made to
Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia v. State of Punjab, (1980) 2 SCC
565 in which it is observed that it was held way back in
Nagendra v. King-Emperor, AIR 1924 Calcutta 476 that
bail is not to be withheld as a punishment. Reference was
also made to Emperor v. Hutchinson, AIR 1931
Allahabad 356 wherein it was observed that grant of bail
is the rule and refusal is the exception. The provision for
bail is therefore age-old and the liberal interpretation to
the provision for bail is almost a century old, going back
to colonial days.
7. However, we should not be understood to mean that
bail should be granted in every case. The grant or refusal
of bail is entirely within the discretion of the judge
hearing the matter and though that discretion is
unfettered, it must be exercised judiciously and in a
humane manner and compassionately. Also, conditions
for the grant of bail ought not to be so strict as to be
incapable of compliance, thereby making the grant of
bail illusory.”
Therefore, to elucidate further, this Court is conscious of the
basic and fundamental principle of law that right to speedy trial is a part of
reasonable, fair and just procedure enshrined under Article 21 of the
Constitution of India. This constitutional right cannot be denied to the
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accused as is the mandate of the Apex court in “Hussainara Khatoon and
ors (IV) v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar, Patna”, (1980) 1 SCC 98.
Besides this, reference can be drawn upon that pre-conviction period of the
under-trials should be as short as possible keeping in view the nature of
accusation and the severity of punishment in case of conviction and the
nature of supporting evidence, reasonable apprehension of tampering with
the witness or apprehension of threat to the complainant.
As far as the pendency of other cases and involvement of the
petitioner in other cases is concerned, reliance can be placed upon the order
of this Court rendered in CRM-M-25914-2022 titled as “Baljinder Singh
alias Rock vs. State of Punjab” decided on 02.03.2023, wherein, while
referring Article 21 of the Constitution of India, this Court has held that no
doubt, at the time of granting bail, the criminal antecedents of the petitioner
are to be looked into but at the same time it is equally true that the
appreciation of evidence during the course of trial has to be looked into with
reference to the evidence in that case alone and not with respect to the
evidence in the other pending cases. In such eventuality, strict adherence to
the rule of denial of bail on account of pendency of other cases/convictions
in all probability would land the petitioner in a situation of denial of
concession of bail.
5. DECISION:
In view of the discussions made hereinabove, the petitioner is
hereby directed to be released on regular bail on his furnishing bail and
surety bonds to the satisfaction of the trial Court/Duty Magistrate,
concerned.
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In the afore-said terms, the present petition is hereby allowed.
However, it is made clear that anything stated hereinabove shall
not be construed as an expression of opinion on the merits of the case.
(SANDEEP MOUDGIL)
31.08.2024 JUDGE
Poonam Negi
Whether speaking/reasoned Yes/No
Whether reportable Yes/No
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