253 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of Decision: 11.12.2025 Jaswinder Singh @ Jassi ..... Petitioner Versus State of Punjab .......Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BHARDWAJ Present: Mr. Amarjeet Singh Prajapati, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr.Raj Karan Singh, AAG, Punjab.

Rajesh Bhardwaj, J. (ORAL)

1. Petitioner has approached this Court by way of present second petition praying for granting regular bail in case FIR No.319 dated 27.11.2020 under Sections 302, 201, 120-B, 34 IPC and Sections 25, 27 of Arms Act, registered at Police Station Sadar Amritsar, District Amritsar.

2. Brief facts of the case are that the FIR in the present case was lodged on the statement of Ramesh Kumar @ Meshi. It was alleged that family of his brother Pawan Kumar used to reside with him. His brother Pawan Kumar had two sons and one daughter. Sunny @ Gorrilla, elder son of his brother was lodged on jail and Mani, younger son of his brother used to work with the complainant on his motorcycle shop. On 27.11.2020 at about 12:30 p.m., Mani was standing in front of the shop, in the meantime, two clean shaven young men arrived on a black Splendor motorcycle from Mustafabad side. Both those persons were with muffled face. They stopped their motorcycle in front of Mani. The pillion rider immediately got off and started firing bullets on Mani. Though, Mani tried to escape, however, he collapsed after being hit by the bullets. The assailants stood nearby and kept on firing on his head and body. It was suspected that co-accused Shubham had carried out murder of Mani through his men, who was already confined in jail. Request was made to take legal action against the accused. On the registration of the FIR, the investigation commenced. During investigation, the petitioner has been nominated as an accused and resultantly, he was arrested on 06.07.2021. He approached the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Amritsar praying for grant of regular bail. However, after hearing both the sides, the learned Court finding no merit in the same, dismissed the bail application filed by the petitioner vide order dated 07.11.2023. being aggrieved, the petitioner earlier approached this Court by way of filing of CRM-M-4031-2024, however, the same was dismissed as withdrawn on 19.02.2025. Hence, the petitioner is before this Court praying for grant of bail by way of filing the present second petition.

3. It has been contended by learned counsel for the petitioner that the case of the prosecution is primarily based on circumstantial evidence. He submits that there is no credible evidence regarding the identity of the petitioner. He submits that the petitioner has been implicated on the basis of statement made by the planted witnesses. He submits that the allegations in the FIR were to the effect that the assailants were with muffled faces thus, there was no occasion for the complainant to identify the petitioner. He submits that the recovery of the weapons has been planted upon the petitioner since as per the FSL report, the same is not proved thus, it cannot be said that the weapon recovered from the petitioner had been used in the commission of the offence. He submits that the petitioner is behind bars from last more than 04 years and majority of the material witnesses already stand examined thus, there is no probability of the petitioner influencing the prosecution witnesses. To buttress his arguments, he submits that though the petitioner is prosecuted in other cases, however, either he is acquitted or he is on bail in those cases. He submits that co-accused, namely, Shubham Singh @ Shuham, has already been granted bail by this Court vide order dated 28.10.2025 passed in CRM-M-58389-2025. He, thus, submits that in the facts and circumstances of the present case, the petitioner deserves to be granted regular bail.

4. Per contra, learned State counsel has opposed the submissions made by counsel for the petitioner. He submits that during