222 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CRM-M-19591-2025 (O&M) Date of decision : 08.09.2025 Akshit Jhamb .....Petitioner versus State of Haryana ..... Respondent CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BHARDWAJ Present :- Ms. Pooja Jaglan, Advocate for the petitioner.

Ms. Diya Sodhi, Sr. D.A.G., Haryana.

Ms. Mansi, Advocate for the complainant.

RAJESH BHARDWAJ , J.

CRM-14822-2025 Allowed as prayed for.

Main case

1. Prayer in the present second petition has been made for grant of regular bail to the petitioner in case FIR No.347 dated 05.09.2024 under Section 308(5), 351(4) of BNS, registered at Police Station Sector-

29, Gurugram, Haryana.

2. Succinctly, the facts of the case are that the present case was registered on the statement complainant, namely, Vishal Bery. It was alleged that he has a business of dealing in property. In the month of June, 2024, he went to Dubai for vacation. During that time, he received a whatsapp message and whatsapp call from a phone number i.e. 8619326282, where the caller told his name to be Rakesh, a member of the Vikas Lagarpuria Gang. He asked him to pay Rs.2 lacs as protection money failing which he would kill him and his family. He was threatened by him saying that they had already committed several murders and the police could not do anything to him as his gang is very powerful. On his return to India in July, 2024, he informed about the extortion call to his wife and sister. He was advised by them to give the money so as to prevent any harm. Hence, he paid Rs.50,000/- in cash to person, namely, Rakesh through his driver Pradeep Yadav at MG Metro Station in Gurugram. Thereafter, he started receiving threatening calls and whatsapp messages from various phone numbers including mobile numbers i.e. 9635750646, 8826352418 and 7355781964. Being afraid, he arranged Rs.1 lac and gave it to Rakesh through his acquaintance, Anil Arora. It was alleged that every time when Rakesh used to collect money he used to arrive in a white colour Swift Dzire car bearing No.DL-1CAE-7680. He alleged that in the last 02 months, he had given Rs.2 lacs in cash to criminal Rakesh through his driver Pradeep Yadav, security guard Deepanshu and Anil Arora. Despite the money having been given by him, he and his family members were getting repeated extortion calls from him. The request was made to take the legal action against the culprits. On registration of FIR, investigation commenced. During investigation, the complicity of the petitioner surfaced and thus, he was arrayed as an accused in the present case. Resultantly, the petitioner was arrested on 20.10.2024. He approached the Learned Additional Sessions Judge, Gurugram, praying for grant of bail, however, finding no merit, the same was declined after hearing both the sides by Learned Additional Sessions Judge, Gurugram vide order dated 14.01.2025. Aggrieved by the same, the petitioner had earlier approached this Court by way of filing of CRM-M- 11762-2025, however, the same was dismissed as withdrawn vide order dated 07.03.2025. Hence, the petitioner is before this Court praying for grant of bail by way of filing of present second petition.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner has vehemently contended that the petitioner has been falsely and frivolously implicated in the present case. She submits that as per the allegations made in the FIR, the caller was one Rakesh who allegedly belonged to Vikas Lagarpuria Gang, however, the petitioner was not named in the FIR. She submits that the petitioner has been implicated in the present case on the basis of disclosure statement of co-accused Shubham Joshi, which is not even an admissible evidence. To buttress her arguments, she submits that the petitioner and the complainant has arrived at a compromise vide compromise deed dated 19.03.2025 and hence both the sides have amicably resolved their inter se dispute. It has been submitted that the petitioner never met the complainant but in the Test Identification Parade