The seriousness of the offences, the knowledge of the accused, and the necessity of custodial interrogation for further investigation were central legal principles established in the judgment.

JUDGMENT

Jasjit Singh Bedi, J. - By virtue of this common order, this Court proposes to dispose of two petitions bearing CRM-M-45181-2022 titled as Gurcharan Singh @ Gurchand Singh @ Chand Versus State of Punjab and CRM-M-44027-2022 titled as Gurpreet Singh Versus State of Punjab as the same are arising out of the same FIR.

2. The prayer in the present petition under Section 438 Cr.P.C. is for the grant of anticipatory bail in case bearing FIR No.145 dated 04.09.2022 (Annexure P-1) registered under Sections 419, 342, 392 of the IPC and Sections 25/27 of Arms Act and (Sections 395, 170, 171, 411 and 492 of the IPC added later on) with Police Station Sadar Khanna.

3. The brief facts of the case are that Sajjan Singh son of Mukhtiar Singh stated that his son had obtained a Panchayati divorce from his wife Manpreet Kaur. As per the divorce, Rs.9 lakhs settlement was to be paid to Manpreet Kaur. A cheque of Rs.3 lakhs had been given to her and Rs.6 lakhs remained to be paid. He had sold some land for about Rs.2 crores and had received a sum of Rs.40 lakhs in cash out of which Rs.25 lakhs was lying at his home whereas the remaining amount had been spent on household expenses. On 04.09.2022 at about 05.15 AM in the morning, he was informed by his daughter-in-law that some people had come to meet him in a white colour Innova car. He found four young people standing outside, three without turbans and one with a turban all wearing masks. They were stated to be of the age of 40-42 years. The said persons told him that they had come to conduct an income tax raid and took the whole family inside. They asked for cash which had been kept in the house. Two of the non-turbaned persons were carrying revolvers. On their threat, he opened his trunk and they took out Rs.25 lakhs. Thereafter, he along with his family were locked inside a room and the youngsters went away with a sum of Rs.25 lakhs. He subsequently called his relatives who got them freed.

Based on the aforementioned allegations, the present FIR came to be registered.

As per the prosecution case, pursuant to the registration of the FIR, on 07.09.2022, the complainant recorded his supplementary statement stating that the petitioner-Gurcharan Singh @ Gurchand Singh @ Chand son of Sohan Singh was in the knowledge that money was lying in the house.

Therefore, petitioner-Gurcharan Singh @ Gurchand Singh @ Chand in connivance with the co-accused Mohd. Haleem @ Dr. Khan, Gurpreet Singh son of Harpal Singh (petitioner in CRM-M-44027-2022) Paramdeep @ Vicky and Rajnish Kumar had earlier come to the village of the complainant and met him. Thereafter Gurcharan Singh @ Gurchand Singh @ Chand and Mohd. Haleem @ Dr. Khan had again come to the village of the complainant and met the him at the bus stand. On 04.09.2022, Mohd. Haleem @ Dr. Khan, Gurpreet Singh (petitioner in CRM-M-44027-2022), Paramdeep alias Vicky, Rajnish Kumar and two unknown persons in one Innova car had committed the robbery at his house. On 07.09.2022, Paramdeep @ Vicky, Mohd. Haleem @ Dr. Khan and Rajnish Kumar were arrested. They confessed to having committed the offence as per the plan of the petitioner-Gurcharan Singh @ Gurchand Singh @ Chand. The petitioner-Gurcharan Singh @ Gurchand Singh @ Chand had conducted a recce of the house of the complainant and had also shown the house of the complainant to the co-accused. During the course of investigation, a sum of Rs.11 lakhs was recovered at the instance of Mohd. Haleem @ Dr. Khan, Paramdeep alias Vicky and Rajnish Kumar. A Verito car PB-10ED-9866 was also taken into police possession.

As per the interrogation and confession of Mohd. Haleem @ Dr. Khan, Paramdeep @ Vicky and Rajnish Kumar, Sukhwinder Singh @ Maan, Daljit Singh, Rajiv Kumar alias Sukha and Harpeet Singh alias Gill were added as accused, pursuant to which offences under Sections 395/170/171/411 IPC were added.

On 12.09.2022, Rajiv Kumar alias Sukha was arrested from Bihar where he disclosed that his actual name was Uma ka