JUDGMENT :

Anoop Chitkara, J. -

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

2. In paragraph 17 of the bail petition, the accused declares the following criminal antecedents:

3. Prosecution's case is being extracted from the reply dated 10.01.2024, which reads as under: -

"That a Case FIR No. 13 dated 02.11.2020, u/s 409, 420, 465, 466, 467, 471, 120-B IPC, 7, 7A Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 as amended by Prevention of Corruption Act, 2018, Police Station Vigilance Bureau, Flying Squad-1, Punjab at Mohali was registered after conducting a detailed enquiry in which it was found that the revenue officials in connivance with other accused persons entered a mutation no. 1767 dated 05.09.2016 and transferred Shamlat Land of Village Soonk in favour of many persons who were not khewatdars of that village. They have also illegally transferred excess land/share in favour of many persons beyond their eligibility. This case was registered against the following accused persons:

3. That during investigation following 9 persons were nominated as accused in this case:

4. That during the investigation of this case it has been established that mutation no. 1767 dated 05.09.2016 was registered, in which about 117 Acre Shamlat Land of Village Soonk was wrongfully entered, mentioning excess share to some Khewatdars or mentioning shares to the persons who were not the Khewatdars/residents of the village. It was also established during investigation that heavy amount of bribe was distributed for entering/sanctioning of this mutation and further distributing land shares in excess to the persons and even to the persons who were not Khewatdar/Residents of the village. Out of this 117 Acres land, about 103 Acres land has further been sold to the different buyers directly by the khewatdars or on the basis of GPA/Sub-GPA's. Out of this 103 Acres land, sold more than 22 Acres of land than the increased shares were found to have been sold, (thus, 22 Acres land exists nowhere). The revenue record pertaining to Shamlatland in question like registries/vasikas/GPAS/Sub-GPAs were taken on record during the investigation.

The following accused were arrested by the Vigilance Bureau, Punjab on 02.11.2020.

The Status of remaining Accused persons in this case is as under:

5. Jaswinder Singh S/o Sarja Singh R/o Village Paindpur, Tehsil Kharar, Distt. Mohali (Arrested on 26.12.2020 and granted bail on 08.03.2021 by the Hon'ble Court Mohali.)

6. Gurpreet Singh S/o Gurmail Singh R/o Village Mastgarh, Distt Mohall. (Joined investigation and Bail Granted on 08.10.2021 from Hon'ble Punjab and Haryana Highcourt.)

7. Raghbir Singh, Kanugoo S/o Banta Singh R/o Village Chakla Tehsil Morinda, Distt, Rupnagar. (Joined investigation and bail Granted on 08.10.2021 from Hon'ble Punjab and Haryana High Court.)

8. Balbir Singh S/o Gurmail Singh R/o Village Khuda Ali Sher, Chandigarh. (Joined investigation and Bail Granted on 01.11.2021 from Hon'ble Punjab and Haryana Highcourt.)

9. Tarsem lal S/o Dharampal R/o Village GhudaMajrian Tehsil Kharar, Distt. Mohali. (Joined investigation and Bail Granted on 10.01.2022 from Hon'ble Punjab and Haryana High Court.)

10. Kabal Singh S/o Karnail Singh R/o Rupana Distt. Sri Mukatsar Sahib. (Joined investigation on dated 07.06.2021.)

11. Manvir Singh S/o Swaran Singh R/o Rupana Distt. Sri Mukatsar Sahib. (Joined investigation on dated 07.06.2021.)

12. Arjun Kansal S/o Banta Singh R/o House no 217, Sector-21-A Chandigarh, (Joined investigation on dated 15.03.2021, 25.03.2021, 05.04.2021)

13. Neeraj Mehta S/o Surindernath Mehta R/o House No. 1276, Sector-18 Chandigarh. (Joined invest