221 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CRM-M-39632-2025 (O&M) Date of decision : 16.02.2026 Harkirat Singh .....Petitioner versus State of Punjab ..... Respondent CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BHARDWAJ Present :- Mr. P.S.Ahluwalia, Senior Advocate with Mr. Keerat Dhillon, Advocate and Mr. Dev Kumar Ahlawat, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Karunesh Kaushal, AAG, Punjab.

RAJESH BHARDWAJ , J. (Oral)

1. Petitioner has approached this Court by way of filing the present petition praying for grant of regular bail to him in case FIR No.79 dated 16.07.2020, under Sections 406, 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 384, 120-B of IPC, registered at Police Station City Zira, District Ferozepur.

2. Succinctly facts of the case are that the FIR has been registered on the statement of the complainant, namely, Pardeep Singh against PACL Pvt. Ltd Company, its Directors and its accomplice companies. It is alleged that he had invested his money in PACL Pvt. Ltd Company. The said Company and its accomplice companies had bought land with the money invested by the complainant in the name of themselves and their relatives in a false manner. It is further alleged that the accused had taken over the illegitimate possession by their relatives and wrongly sold valuable wood worth crores of rupees at the land and by falsely selling the reta by mining, they had done misappropriation of crores of rupees. Request was made to take legal action against the culprits. On registration of the FIR, investigation commenced. During investigation, complicity of the petitioner surfaced and thus, he was arrested on 22.10.2023. On completion of the investigation, the trial commenced, challan filed and on framing of charges, trial commenced. Petitioner approached the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ferozepur, however, after hearing counsel for the parties, the same was declined vide order dated 20.02.2024. Aggrieved by the same, petitioner is before this Court by way of filing the present petition.

3. Learned Senior counsel for the petitioner has vehemently contended that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present case. He submits that the petitioner besides the present FIR, has been booked in three other FIRs i.e. FIR No.1 dated 21.02.2023 registered at Police Station Punjab State Crime, SAS Nagar; FIR No.87 dated 11.03.2024 registered at Punjab, Sohana, District SAS Nagar and FIR No.211 dated 24.12.2019 registered at PS Lalru District SAS Nagar however, FIR No.211 dated 24.12.2019 already stands cancelled; in FIR No.1 dated 21.02.2023, petitioner is on bail and FIR No.87 dated 11.03.2024 is pending investigation. It is submitted that the allegation against the petitioner is that there is transfer of Rs.5.8 crores in the account of petitioner however, the co-accused namely, Prabhjot against whom the allegation of transfer of Rs.2.2 crores has been levelled, has already been released on bail by this Court. He submits that the petitioner was arrested on 22.10.2023 however, due to his precarious medical condition, he remained on medical interim bail from 03.10.2024 to 29.07.2025 and since July, 2025, he is behind the bars. It is submitted that custody of the petitioner as on date is 01 year and 05 months. It is further submitted that in the nutshell, the whole allegations are based on the documentary evidences. It is submitted that the investigation already stands completed and out of 32 accused, rest all 31 accused are on regular bail or anticipatory bail. He thus, prays that in the facts and circumstances of the case and the health condition of the petitioner, he deserves to be granted regular bail as he has never misused the interim bail earlier granted for a period of about 09 months.

4. Learned State counsel has vehemently opposed the submissions made by learned counsel for the petitioner. He submits that the the petitioner is a mastermind of the whole story. He submits that the total land of the M/s Pearl Group was 93 bighas and thi