The court established that insufficient evidence linking the petitioner directly to the cause of death justified granting bail, reaffirming the principle that charges should be substantiated to uphold incarceration.

JUDGMENT :

Mr. Kuldeep Tiwari, J.

1. Through the instant petition, the petitioner craves for indulgence of this Court for them being enlarged on regular bail, in case FIR No.352 dated 07.10.2023, under Sections 302 , 34, 148, 149 of IPC ( Sections 307 , 452, 323, 325 and 304 IPC added, and Sections 302 and 307 IPC deleted, later on), registered at Police Station City Faridkot, Faridkot.

2. The case, as set up by the prosecution agency, is that the instant FIR was registered on a statement made by one Baldev Singh, son of Atma Singh, which became the bedrock for the registration of the instant FIR. Initially the FIR was registered under Sections 302 /34, 148 and 149 IPC, however, on the basis of the medical opinion, the offence under Section 302 IPC, was deleted, and offence under Section 304 IPC, was added later on.

3. As per the case of the complainant, one accused-Sandeep alias Bony alongwith 8-10 other persons, caused injuries to persons namely, Arshdeep Singh, Jashandeep Singh, Tejinder Singh and Mohit Kakkar, and furthermore, Tejinder Singh succumbed to the injuries, as caused by accused persons in the instant occurrence. The relevant part of the FIR reads as under:-

“Statement of Baldev Singh son of Atma Singh son of Lakha Singh, resident of Sadha Wala, now Dream City, Machaki Mal Singh road, Faridkot, aged about 55 years, 81465-45613 stated that I Mobile No. am resident of aforesaid address and for the last 4/5 years I have been residing in Dream City, Faridkot along with my family. I am serving in Police Department 6-IRB and my duty is in Refinery, Bathinda. I have two children, out of whom Sukhjinder Singh is my elder son, Tejinder Singh is younger and my daughter is Sukhpreet Kaur. Both elder children are married and Tejinder Singh is unmarried. Sukhjinder Singh is doing private job at Chandigarh. Tejinder Singh is residing with us. In front of my house in the street a bench is lying where usually ladies and other persons sits. Arshdeep Singh and Jashandeep Singh, sons of Lakhwinder Singh Sodhi also sits on the said bench. On these boys 05-10-2023, were sitting on the bench, then Sandeep Singh alias Bony son of Tarsem, whose house is one house away from our house, had stopped sons of Lakhwinder Singh from sitting on the bench Today on 06-10-2023 at about 09.30 P.M., both sons of Lakhwinder Singh were coming on feet, to whom Bony stopped by calling them and they started quarrelling with each other. My son Tejinder Singh started intervening to separate them and in this course 08/10 more persons who had come with Bony, started beating them and while I was witnessing, Lakhwinder Singh and his mother also came running there and Bony and all these boys inflicted number of injuries on the person of his mother, Lakhwinder Singh, both sons Arshdeep Singh, Jashandeep Singh, Tejinder Singh, Mohit Kakkar. All the said persons were holding Kirpans, Kapas and Baseballs and I raised noise “Don’t kill Don’t kill” and after having heard my noise, finding the gathering being attracted to that place, all the accused fled away from the spot along with their weapons. Due to internal injuries, my son Tejinder Singh had fallen there and with the help of the residents of the Colony, he was brought to GGSMC & Hospital where Doctor Sahib declared my son “Brought dead” and the death of my son has been caused due to beatings given by Bony and other persons who accompanied him. The reason of the dispute is that Bony etc. used to stop sons of Lakhwi