IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of decision: 18.03.2026 Jeewan Singh @ Jeon Singh ...Petitioner(s)

VERSUS State of Punjab ...Respondent(s)

CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VINOD S. BHARDWAJ Present :- Mr. Abhaysher Singh, Advocate and Ms. Janya Sirohi, Advocate for the petitioner(s).

Mr. Mohit Kapoor, Sr. DAG Punjab.

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VINOD S. BHARDWAJ, J. (Oral)

1. This third petition has been filed for grant of regular bail to the petitioner(s) in case bearing FIR No.91 dated 24.06.2023, registered under Section(s) 302, 34 (Section 201, 203, 182 added later on) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 at Police Station City Malout, Sri Muktsar Sahib, after withdrawal of earlier two petitions on 18.02.2025 and 10.07.2025.

2. FIR in the present case was registered on the statement of Harnek Singh, who made a statement to the effect that :-

“xxxxxx they are two brothers. His elder brother is Jasvir Singh. They are married and are separate in residence. Jasvir Singh was married to Paramjit Kaur daughter of Bakhshish Ram, resident of village Midda for the last 33-34 years. Jasvir Singh was cancer patient. His sister-in-law Paramjit Kaur proceeded on the wrong path. She used to bring females from other villages in her house and indulged them in wrong work. Jasvir Singh used to stop Paramjit Kaur from doing so. Due to this reason, Jasvir Singh started taking liquor. Paramjit Kaur was not caring Jasvir Singh properly. On 12.04.2023 at about 4:20 PM, his nephew Jiwan Singh alias Jeon telephonically informed him that Jiwan Singh’s father Jasvir Singh died on account of cancer. Then about 30-35 minutes later, his sister- in-law telephonically informed his wife Karamjit Kaur to come quickly as they called doctor and doctor told that smell is coming out from the dead body of Jasvir Singh, so they should cremate him at the earliest. Then he along with his father Chand Singh and his wife Karamjit Kaur went to the house of Jasvir Singh. On reaching, they checked the dead body of Jasvir Singh, then they found some mark on the neck of Jasvir Singh due to which they took his dead body to Civil Hospital, Malout, where his postmortem was got done and as per which, Jasvir Singh died on account of strangulation and there was an injury mark on his left wrist also. He is sure that Jasvir Singh was murdered by his nephew and sister-in-law. xxxxxxx”.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the present FIR was registered at the instance of paternal uncle of the petitioner after a gap of nearly 2 ½ months of the alleged incident. He contends that the petitioner has been in custody since 24.06.2023 and has undergone an actual custody of nearly 02 years 09 months. He contends that as a matter of fact, the nature of medical evidence is suggestive of death by suicide and not suggestive of homicidal death on account of strangulation. He contends that the cause of death is shown as asphyxia but the opinion is non-conclusive about the manner and nature in which the asphyxia took place. He contends that the placement of the ligature as well as the medical evidence thus strongly refutes the ocular version set forth by the complainant. He submits that the motive attributed by the complainant, against the petitioner and his mother is to the effect that the mother of the petitioner used to indulge in human trafficking and used to bring girls for prostitution with the active connivance of the petitioner herein. He contends that the petitioner has no criminal antecedents and as a matter of fact the deceased himself was allegedly indulging in human trafficking. He contends that father of the petitioner was not in a fit state of mind on account of his sufferance from cancer and committed suicide as a result thereof. He contends that the petitioner and his mother have been falsely implicated in the present case by the complainant with a view to take possession of the property belonging to the deceased. It is contended that the conclusion of trial shall take a long ti