JUDGMENT

Jasjit Singh Bedi, J. (Oral)

The prayer in the present petition under Section 438 Cr.P.C., 1973 is for the grant of anticipatory bail to the petitioner in case FIR No.144 dated 26.07.2021 under section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and Section 13 (2) of the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act, 2015 and Section 420 , 467, 468 and 471 IPC registered at Police Station Ambala Sadar.

2. The brief facts of the case are that while the police party was on patrolling duty, some persons belonging to a Cow Protection Organisation apprised the police party that one truck bearing No.PB02CC0054 was coming from Rajpura side wherein the cows were loaded and were being taken to UP for slaughter. If a barricading was done on GT Road, the said truck could be apprehended with the cows.

Pursuant to this information, the police officials set-up a barricade and started checking the trucks coming from Punjab towards Delhi. A truck bearing No.PB02CC0054 was seen coming and was asked to stop. Then, all of a sudden, two persons after deboarding from the truck tried to flee away. They were apprehended and disclosed their names as Kulwinder Singh and Irfan. The truck was checked and was found to contain cows one upon the other totalling 14 in number.

Based on the said facts, the instant FIR came to be registered initially under sections 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and Section 13 (2) of the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act, 2015.

3. During the course of investigation, the RC of the truck was examined, in which the name of the owner was recorded as Shamsher Singh (petitioner) son of Puran Singh and the Chasis No. of the said truck was found to be recorded as MB1KADWC60PAH0881 and Engine No. as DAPZ106292 with the Registration No.as PB02-CC-0054.

The petitioner moved an application for release of the vehicle on superdari. However, verification of the RC of the above truck was to be done. On verification, it was found that the RC of truck No.PB02-CC-0054 had not been issued by the Office of the Registering Authority, Amritsar, Punjab. It was prima facie established that the recovered RC was a forged document and on the same day Sections 420 , 467, 468 and 471 IPC were added to the aforesaid FIR.

Thereafter, an application was moved to the Office of the Registering Authority, Amritsar to provide the details of registration number of the truck on the basis of Chasis No.MB1KADWC60PAH0881 and Engine No.DAPZ106292. After examining the record, the office supplied the details that the registration number of the said vehicle was PB02CC9677 and the owner of the truck was Harjinder Singh son of Avtar Singh.

Thereafter, Harjinder Singh was joined in investigation and disclosed that he had sold the truck bearing No.PB02CC9677 to Puran Singh, father of the present petitioner, for an amount of Rs.10,05,000/- and an agreement to sell was reduced in writing on 20.02.2020. However, the truck was not transferred in the name of Puran Singh who had stated that he would get transferred the said vehicle in the name of his son-Shamsher Singh (petitioner). Thereafter, on 11.06.2020, a Power of Attorney was executed by Harjinder Singh in the name of Shamsher Singh (petitioner) but even thereafter, the truck was not transferred in his name. Apparently, the truck No.PB02CC9677 was being used by Shamsher Singh (petitioner) who had forged the documents of the truck and affixed a fake number plate showing the registration number as PB02-CC-0054.He had done the same on account of the fact that the vehicle was mortgaged with a finance company and as the petitioner did not repay the loan amount to the finance company, to save the truck from re-possession, the forged documents were prepared and a fictitious number plate was affixed on the said truck.

It also transpired that no permit had been issued for truck bearing registration No.PB02-CC-0054 making it apparent that the recovered documents i.e. the RC of