IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of decision: 17.02.2026 Sukhwant Singh ...Petitioner(s)

VERSUS State of Punjab ...Respondent(s)

CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VINOD S. BHARDWAJ Present :- Mr. Raghav Chadha, Advocate for the petitioner.

Dr. (Ms.) Savi Nagpal, AAG Punjab.

Mr. Amit Arora, Advocate for the complainant.

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VINOD S. BHARDWAJ, J. (Oral)

1. The instant petition has been filed for grant of regular bail to the petitioner in case bearing FIR No.13 dated 02.04.2024 registered under Sections 406, 120-B (Section 420 added later on) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Section 13 of the Punjab Travel Professionals (Regulation) Act, 2014 at Police Station NRI Amritsar, District Amritsar.

2. The instant FIR was registered by Rajwant Kaur, who made a complaint to the effect that she had been defrauded by the petitioner on the pretext of sending her son abroad. It was averred by the complainant that she had contacted the petitioner, a travel agent, for sending her son Gurvinder Singh to England. An agreement was entered into between the parties for a total consideration of Rs.12 lakhs. The complainant is claimed to have transferred a sum of Rs.5,94,000/- via RTGS on 28.09.2019 and thereafter, a further sum of Rs.3,91,000/- on 25.02.2020 and lastly, a sum of Rs.2,00,000/- on 19.03.2020 via NEFT into the petitioner’s bank account, accumulating a total sum of Rs.11,85,000/-. However, the petitioner stopped responding to the complainant after receipt of the aforesaid amount and whenever the complainant made an attempt to contact him, he kept on making false promises and misleading them and delaying the issue. Alleging that neither any visa was arranged nor the money was returned, the complaint was made thus, resulting in registration of the instant FIR. The petitioner was arrested on 11.01.2025, whereafter he applied for concession of regular bail, however, the same was dismissed by the trial Court vide order dated 27.01.2025. A fresh petition for grant of regular bail was filed yet again by the petitioner before the trial Court, which was also dismissed on 04.02.2025, upon against which the present petition has been filed.

3. Vide order dated 09.04.2025 passed by this Court, the petitioner was ordered to be released on interim bail. The aforesaid interim order has continued to operate in the meanwhile.

4. Counsel for the petitioner contends that the challan already stands presented, however, further proceedings before the trial Court have been stayed pursuant to a separate order passed in a separate petition filed by the petitioner for seeking quashing of the FIR. He contends that there is no allegations of any misuse of the concession of interim bail granted to the petitioner, and prays that in view of the same, the order dated 09.04.2025 be made absolute.

5. Learned State counsel as well as counsel for the complainant do not dispute the averments noticed above. They, however, contend that there are arguable issues with respect to the participation of the petitioner in the offence.

6. Having heard the learned counsel for the parties and taking into consideration that interim bail was granted to the petitioner on 09.04.2025 by this Court and there is no allegation of any abuse of the said concession and noticing that the investigation in the matter is already complete and further bearing in mind that arguable issues arise regarding petitioner’s role in commission of the offence, which would be adjudicated by the trial Court during the trial, the present petition is hereby allowed and the order dated

09.04.2025 granting interim bail to the petitioner is made absolute.

(VINOD S. BHARDWAJ)

17.02.2026 JUDGE

Mangal Singh