IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of decision: 25^th February, 2025 Ashok Kumar Purohit @ Ashok Patarkar ...Petitioner Versus State of Punjab ...Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE MANISHA BATRA Present: Mr. Bhavesh Aggarwal, Advocate for the petitioner.

Ms. Sakshi Bakshi, Assistant Advocate General, Punjab.

Mr. Naveen Sharma, Advocate for the complainant.

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MANISHA BATRA, J (ORAL):-

The present petition has been filed under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short ‘BNSS’) by the petitioner seeking grant of regular bail in case bearing FIR No. 16 dated 12.02.2024 registered under Sections 419, 420 and 120-B of IPC and Sections 66-C and 66-D of Information Technology Act, (Sections 465, 467, 468 and 471 of IPC added later on) at Police Station Model Town, District Ludhiana.

2. As per the prosecution case, the complainant Sanjeev Jain, who is owner of a hosiery factory at Ludhiana and hails from Jain community, had received a call on his mobile phone number on 07.02.2024. The caller introduced himself as Parkash Rasik Lal Dhariwal, who is head of a committee of Jain community. The said Parkash Rasik Lal Dhariwal was known to the com