Advocates:
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant :Mr. P.S. Ahluwalia, Advocate, with Mr. Keerat Dhillon, Advocate
For the Respondent:Mr. Sahil R. Bakshi, AAG, Punjab. and Mr. Ranjan Lakhanpal, Advocate

JUDGMENT :

Deepak Gupta, J.

By way of this petition filed under Section 438 CrPC, petitioner prays for grant of anticipatory bail in case FIR No.36 dated 26.04.2022 (Annexure P1) registered under Sections 302/201/341/323/148/149 IPC at Police Station Mulepur, District Fatehgarh Sahib.

2. Reply/Status report by way of affidavit of Sukhbir Singh, PPS, DSP, Fatehgarh Sahib, District Fatehgarh Sahib, on behalf of the respondent-State, has already been filed.

3.1 FIR was lodged on the basis of a complaint made on 04.07.2019 by Smt. Surinder Kaur, resident of Mianpur, Tehsil and District Fatehgarh Sahib against the petitioner (Kashmir Singh), his two sons namely Gurpreet Singh & Daljit Singh @ Dalli besides others namely, Kuldeep Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Jagjit Singh and some unknown persons. It was alleged that Jashanpreet Singh (deceased), the maternal grandson of the complainant was living with his Nankas (maternal grandparents) in village Mianpur. On 29.06.2019, at about 5:30 PM, said Jashanpreet Singh left with his friend Kulvir Singh @ Kala for village Rajwaha (Sua) for bathing. It was alleged that Sarpanch of the village i.e. Kashmir Singh (petitioner) and others came there, gave beatings to Jashanpreet Singh and then threw him in the canal with an intention to kill him. It was further alleged that matter was reported to the police but due to the political pressure, no action was taken.

3.2 Dead body of Jashanpreet Singh was recovered on 03.07.2019. DDR No.20 dated 03.07.2019 was recorded stating therein that further action will be taken after conducting post-mortem examination. On the complaint of Surinder Kaur, a Special Investigation Team was constituted, which concluded that Jashanpreet Singh seemed to have died due to jumping in the canal water, time and again in an intoxicated condition and due to his contact with intense flow of water in canal. Viscera report was directed to be awaited. After receipt of the Viscera report, board of Doctors opined that cause of death was Asphyxia on account of drowning, which was ante-mortem in nature and sufficient to cause death in routine course of nature.

3.3 Status report reveals further that in the meantime, Balbir Singh, the father of late Jashanpreet Singh filed CRM-M-33284-2019 before this Court, which was decided on 27.04.2022. Another SIT was constituted by SSP Fatehgarh Sahib, which vide its report dated 21.04.2022 found that as per the instructions of Hon'ble Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari Vs. State of U.P. and others, AIR 2012 SC 1515 and also keeping in view the MLR of Kulvir Singh @ Kala, the FIR was required to be registered against petitioner and others. Accordingly, present FIR was registered.

3.4 After registration of the FIR, Sukhwinder Kaur wife of the petitioner made two different applications dated 02.06.2022 against registration of the FIR; whereas, complainant Surinder Kaur made four different applications dated 18.06.2022, 25.08.2022, 30.08.2022 and 03.09.2022. On receipt of these six applications, SSP Fatehgarh Sahib again constituted an SIT vide order dated 10.05.2022, which found and concluded that on 29.06.2019, Jashanpreet Singh (deceased), Kulvir Singh @ Kala and Harminder Singh had come to minor canal in order to take bath, where a quarrel took place between Jashanpreet Singh & Kulvir Singh @ Kala on one hand and Kuldeep Singh, Bhupinder Singh and Jagjit Singh on other hand. Harinder Singh had already left. During this quarrel, Sarpanch Kashmir Singh (petitioner) had come to the spot and from his statement, it was clear that he had slapped Kulvir Singh @ Kala. SIT further concluded that Daljit Singh @ Dalli and Gurpeet Singh were not present at the spot. No evidence was found against them. It was recommended to delete Sections 148 and 149 IPC and to add Section 34 IPC. SSP Fatehgarh Sahib agreed with the report and directed SHO, Police Station Mulepur to take action accordingly.

3.5 Thereafter, raids were conducted to arrest the petitioner but he could not be fo