The main legal point established is that weak evidence, such as an extra judicial confession and non-incriminating call records, along with the petitioner's age and time spent in custody, can influence the court's decision in granting bail.

JUDGMENT

Vikas Bahl, J. (Oral) - The present petition has been filed under Section 439 Cr.P.C. for grant of regular bail to the petitioners namely Harwinder Singh @ Kaku and Manpreet Singh in case FIR No. 33 dated 23.03.2021 under Sections 302, 328, 341, 148, 149, 120-B of Indian Penal Code registered at Police Station Sadar Raikot, District Ludhiana.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioners has submitted that the present petition qua petitioner No. 2 Manpreet Singh is not being pressed at this stage and accordingly, he seeks to withdraw the present petition qua petitioner No. 2, at this stage.

3. In view of the statement made by learned counsel for the petitioners, present petition qua petitioner no. 2 namely Manpreet Singh, stands dismissed as withdrawn, at this stage.Learned counsel for the petitioners has pressed the present petition for bail qua petitioner No. 1.

4. FIR in the present case was registered on the statement of Jaswinder Singh son of Major Singh, who had stated that he and his brother Rajinder Singh (deceased) were residing in one house as a joint family and when the complainant had gone to his diary farm for milking of buffaloes at about 05:15 AM on 23.03.2021, then Baljinder Singh son of Gurmail Singh came to the fields of the complainant at about 6:30 AM and informed the complainant that dead body of Rajinder Singh, alongwith his scooter, was lying on Rasulpur road and on reaching there, the complainant found that he had died and there were several injuries on the person of the said Rajinder Singh and even the scooter was stained with blood and red chilly powder. The FIR was registered in which it was alleged that unknown persons had murdered Rajinder Singh. As per the case of the prosecution, the present occurrence was witnessed by one Kamaljit Singh whose statement was recorded on 15.05.2021. As per the said witness, he, alongwith one Sikander Singh, was standing at the parking of one Gurudwara Sahib when they heard loud noise and they saw accused/ non-applicant Amandeep Singh, Gurwinder Singh and one unknown person, whose name was ultimately found to be Gursewak Singh, were causing injuries to the deceased Rajinder Singh.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner has further submitted that petitioner No. 1 Harwinder Singh has been falsely implicated in the present case. It has been stated that Harwinder Singh has not been namedin the FIR and ever as per the said eye witness, no injury had been inflicted by the present petitioner No. land in fact, as per the examination in chief of the said eye witness Kamaljit Singh, who had been examined as PW-1, it is apparent that the petitioner was not even present at the spot at the time of the occurrence. It is further submitted that the statement of said Kamaljit Singh, who is a relative of the deceased, had been recorded after a period of more than one and a half month from the registration of the FIR i.e. the FIR was registered on 23.03.2021 and the said statement was recorded on 15.05.2021. It is submitted that there is no recovery effected from the petitioner Harwinder Singh and he is not involved in any other case and he is 55 years of age and has been in custody since 21.04.2021 (9 months and 21 days) and challan in the present case has been presented and there are as many as 22 witnesses out of which 16 witnesses are yet to be examined and thus, the trial is likely to take time, moreso in the view of the present COVID-19 pandemic situation.

6. Learned State counsel as well as learned counsel for the complainant have opposed the present application for regular bail and have submitted that in addition to the eye witness account of Kamaljit Singh, there is an extra judicial confession of the present petitioner and Manpreet Singh (petitioner No. 2) made before Ramandeep Singh, who had given a statement on 06.04.2021 to the police and as per the said extra judicial confession, the present petitioner and Manpreet Singh had admitted that they, alongwith Gursewak Singh, Amand