JUDGMENT :

Meenakshi I. Mehta, J.

Apprehending his arrest in the criminal case pertaining to the FIR bearing No.69 dated 12.05.2021 registered at Police Station Balachaur, District Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, under Sections 21(1), 4(1) of the Mine and Minerals (RD) Act, 1957 (for short ‘the Act of 1957’) wherein the offences under Sections 465, 468 & 471 IPC are stated to have been added later-on, the petitioner has preferred this petition for seeking the relief of anticipatory bail.

2. Bereft of unnecessary details, the allegations, as levelled in the subject FIR, are that on receipt of a secret information regarding the illegal mining being carried out in village Mansewal, the police party, headed by ASI Darshan Lal, started for the spot and on their way, they noticed a tractor coming with a trolley, loaded with sand, attached to it. On seeing the police party, the driver fled away from the spot leaving the tractor and the trolley there. Initially, the FIR was registered under the afore-detailed provisions of the Act of 1957.

3. Status-report has already been filed on behalf of the respondent-State by way of the affidavit of Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sub-Division Balachaur, Di