JUDGMENT :

Anoop Chitkara, J.

1. The petitioner apprehending arrest in the FIR captioned above has come up before this Court under Section 438 CrPC, 1973, seeking anticipatory bail.

2. As per paragraph 11 of the bail petition, the accused has the following criminal antecedents:

3. The facts and allegations are being taken from the reply filed by the State, which reads as follows:

"That brief facts of the FIR number:-

FIR No 15 dated 15-03-2024 U/S, 379 IPC (section 413 IPC was added later on vide DDR No. 19 dated 11.06.2024) registered at P.S. Division No-I, Pathankot based on the following incident:

i) The complainant namely Rahul Gupta son of Manohar Lal R/o Anandpur Road Near Sharma Dairy, Mohalla New Abadi, P.S. Division No 1, Pathankot had recorded his statement that he is a resident of the above-mentioned address and is running a garment shop at Khanpur Chowk, Pathankot. He further stated that he had purchased one car Brezza Colour White bearing Registration no PB-35-AD- 2304 in his name and he used to park the said car on the road in front of Vivekanand School Anandpur because the car could not enter the street which goes to his house.

ii) That on 14-03-2024 at about 10:15 PM he parked his aforesaid car in front of Vivekanand School Anandpur Tanki and went to his house and on the next day i.e. on 15- 03-2024 at about 7:15 AM, when the complainant was going to drop his brother for bus stand and reached near Vivekanand School his car was not parked there. He searched for his car but he could not locate the same and his car had been stolen by some unknown people.

iii) That after the registration of the present FIR, the police were trying to get the clue of the accused persons. The Police of P.S. Division No-I, Pathankot received information from P.S City Batala, District Gurdaspur that one accused namely Kanwaljit Singh @ Kanwalpreet Singh was arrested in FIR no 25, dated 27-03-2024, U/s 379, 413, 473, 411, IPC registered at P.S. City Batala had made confession statement regarding him along with the present petitioner namely Amanjit Singh his brother-inlaw and Akashdeep Singh @ Akash s/o Kabal Singh Rio Kula Chownk Patti District Tarn Taran committing theft of one car Brezza Colour White near Vivekanand School Pathankot in march 2024 and he had further confessed that he along with the present petitioner and Akashdeep @ Akash committed theft of cars in the areas of Batala, Dinanagar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Kapurthala and used to sold the said cars to one person at Moga through Surjit Singh of Delhi.

iv) That during the investigation dated 11.06.2024 the accused namely Kanwaljit Singh @ Kanwalpreet Singh was arrested after obtaining a production warrant from the Court of Illaqa Magistrate. It is further made here clear that during the remand of Kanwaljit Singh said FIR IO had verified the credentials of the accused through the PAIS App it was verified that there are 11 more cases registered against the accused Kanwaljit Singh @ Kanwalpreet Singh in different Police Stations of Punjab and then the offense under section 413 IPC was enhanced. With DDR no 19 dated 11-06-2024 in the present."

4. The petitioner's counsel prays for bail by imposing any stringent conditions and contends that further pre-trial incarceration would cause an irreversible injustice to the petitioner and their family.

5. The State's counsel opposes bail and refers to the reply.

6. It would be appropriate to refer to the following portions of the reply, which read as follows:

"A. Role of Present Petitioner: The present Petitioner is a partner in crime with the accused Kanwaljit Singh @ Kanwalpreet Singh and is also a relative of the said accused. The said accused namely Kanwaljit Singh @ Kanwalpreet Singh had mentioned the fact regard