The High Court
Case Details
CRM-M-7984-2025 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CRM-M-7984-2025 Reserved on: 03.03.2025 Pronounced on: 12.03.2025 Jyo(cid:5) ...Pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner Versus State of Punjab …Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANOOP CHITKARA Present: Mr. Jajot Singh Lalli, Advocate for the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner. Mr. Sukhdev Singh, A.A.G, Punjab. Mr. Suvir Sidhu, Advocate (through video conferencing) and Mr. Pranshul Dhull, Advocate for the complainant. ***** ANOOP CHITKARA, J. FIR No. Dated Police Sta2on Sec2ons 412 15.09.2024 Zirakpur, SAS Nagar, Mohali District 364, 365, 302, 34, 201 IPC 1.
Legal Reasoning
The pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner apprehending arrest in the FIR cap(cid:5)oned above has come up before this Court under Sec(cid:5)on 482 of Bhara(cid:5)ya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, [BNSS], seeking an(cid:5)cipatory bail. 2. In paragraph 17 of the bail pe(cid:5)(cid:5)on, the accused declares that she has no criminal antecedents. 3. The facts and allega(cid:5)ons are taken from the status report filed by the State, which reads as follows: “1. That it is respec(cid:15)ully submi(cid:21)ed here that an FIR No. 412 dated 15.09.2024 has been registered on the basis of the statement of the complainant namely Karam Singh, in which he broadly stated that the marriage of his son namely Jaswinder Singh was solemnized about 18 years ago with Jyo+/the Pe++oner. His son had one son namely Fath Singh, aged about 12 years. His son was JYOTI 2025.03.12 15:55 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this order/judgment. CRM-M-7984-2025 2 50% disabled due to injuries caused to him in a road accident. His daughter-in-law/the Pe++oner had started raising dispute and was pressurizing them to sell the property. Hence the complainant had sold all his proper+es and divided equally among his two sons as per their respec+ve shares. The complainant further stated that his daughter-in-law/the Pe++oner had forcibly transferred all of the proper+es in her name which was owned and purchased by his son. The complainant further stated that his daughter-in- law/the Pe++oner was having an extra-marital affair with one person namely Nishan Singh resident of Amritsar. His daughter-in-law/the Pe++oner and Nishan Singh had declared themselves as husband and wife among neighbours at Mohali. The complainant further stated that his Daughter-in-law Jyo+/the Pe++oner in connivance with Nishani Singh, Resham Singh @ Sukhdev Singh resident of Amritsar had kidnapped his son and had kept him at some unknown place in order to usurp his property and money. The complainant further stated that his son had come to meet his at village Dyalpur in January 2024. Therea;er, he did not have any talk with his son nor he had met him. The complainant apprehended danger to the life of his son and sought legal ac+on against his Daughter-in-law namely Jyo+/the Pe++oner, Nishan Singh and Resham Singh @ Sukhdev Singh. As the statement prima facie disclosed commission of cognizable offence, hence FIR No. 412 dated 15.09.2024 has been registered under sec+on 365, 34 IPC against Jyo+/the Pe++oner, Nishan Singh and Resham Singh @ Sukhdev Singh.” 4. Counsel for the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner seeks bail on the grounds of false implica(cid:5)on by the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner's father-in-law. He argued that the only evidence that the prosecu(cid:5)on has collected against the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner is based on an extrajudicial confession made by co-accused Nishant Singh and Resham Singh recorded on 21.09.2024. However, such confessions of co- accused have no legal value. He refers to suicide note as Annexures P-6 and transla(cid:5)on of video recorded by deceased as Annexure P-7, which were purportedly made by the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner’s husband, who is stated to have been murdered. 5. The pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner's counsel prays for bail by imposing any stringent condi(cid:5)ons and contends that pre-trial incarcera(cid:5)on would cause an irreversible injus(cid:5)ce to the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner and her family. JYOTI 2025.03.12 15:55 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this order/judgment. CRM-M-7984-2025 3 6. The State’s counsel as well as counsel for the complainant opposes bail and refers to the status report. Counsel for the complainant submits that corpus of delic(cid:5) has not been recovered so far, in case the same is recovered in that case, police will be able to find out truth, as such, bail shall not be granted to the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner. 7. It would be appropriate to refer to the following por(cid:5)ons of the status report, which read as follows: “ROLE OF THE PETITIONER 15. That the role of the Pe++oner is that of a main-conspirator. It has come on record that the pe++oner was having an extra- marital affair with her co-accused Nishan Singh. Even Nishan Singh in his confessional statement has admi(cid:21)ed that the Pe++oner is having a son and he is the father of the same. As per the confession of the co-accused, they in furtherance of conspiracy and on ins+ga+on of the Pe++oner had brought the deceased Jaswinder Singh at Kothi No. 52, RS Enclave Ghanepar Kale, Police Sta+on Cheharta, District Amritsar and killed him by strangula+on. Therea;er, they had taken the dead body of Jaswinder Singh in the car owned by the Pe++oner and further threw the dead body in drain as men+oned above. EVIDENCE AGAINST THE PETITIONER 16. That during inves+ga+on, it came forth that the Jyo+/the pe++oner is transferring the money from the account of the deceased through his mobile phone to her own account. In this regard the SBI Bank account no. 65051xxxxx statement of the deceased namely Jaswinder Singh was obtained. The Bank account statement of the deceased shows that more than 31 lakhs had been transferred from the aforesaid SBI account of the deceased in the account of Jyo+/the Pe++oner from 01.09.2024 to 16.09.2024.” REASONING: 8. An analysis of the arguments made by the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner and the response made by the State counsel and the Complainant’s counsel would lead to the following outcome. 9. It is appropriate to re-extract the suicide notes (Annexures P-6 and P-7), which read as follows: - JYOTI 2025.03.12 15:55 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this order/judgment. “Annexure P-6 CRM-M-7984-2025 4 I, Jaswinder Singh in my full senses, sta+ng that I am remaining in tension due to my physical pain of life, whereas my wife takes full care of me. But my mental status of pain does not remain good, as such I am ending my life, in which no my wife and my any rela+ve is involved. xxx xxx.” “Annexure P-7 Transcrip+on of CD Waheguru Ji Ki Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh. I Jaswinder Singh son of Karan Singh, am resident of Village Diyalpura, District Mohali. I am mentally very much tense as such I am ending my life. No one is responsible for the same. My wife Jyo+, my Fateh are my heirs of my property. Except these no one is heir of my property. Whatever the property, both of them are owners house, shops and land. They can take their right legally at any point of +me. It is their right, they may not be tortured, they may live their lives as per their wish. I am mentally very tense. As such, I am taking this decision. Waheguru Ji Ki Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.” 10. On the face of it, the video of the suicide appears to be neither a deep-fake nor clipped nor State contradict the same. 11. As of date, the dead body has not been recovered. It means it is a case of corpus delic(cid:5). Given the suicide note, if the person is found to be dead, it cannot be ascertained at this stage that whether the cause of death was suicide, homicide or any other reason. In the background and prima facie authen(cid:5)city of the video made by deceased, to curtail liberty of the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner simply because the offence falls under Sec(cid:5)on 302 IPC would not come in the way (cid:5)ll the (cid:5)me of recovery of dead body and consequent post mortem and finding thereupon. 12. However, the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner is granted interim bail un(cid:5)l the recovery of the body and for a period of 15 days beyond the postmortem. If the postmortem report indicates homicide, this interim bail shall automa(cid:5)cally be revoked without any further reference to this Court. This Court granted interim bail based on the contents of the suicide notes and the corpus delic(cid:5). This means that once the body is recovered and if the findings point toward homicide, the grounds for gran(cid:5)ng the interim bail will be rendered invalid due to the medical evidence, and therefore, the interim bail cannot remain in effect. Given the evidence presented through the suicide notes, this case warrants interim bail. 13. JYOTI 2025.03.12 15:55 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this order/judgment. Thus in the facts and circumstances men(cid:5)oned above, this Court deems it fit and CRM-M-7984-2025 5 appropriate to grant interim bail to the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner (cid:5)ll the recovery of dead body and 15 days beyond post mortem report provided the post-mortem indicts towards the cause of death. However, if the dead body is recovered and post-mortem findings point towards suicide, then this bail shall become absolute automa(cid:5)cally but in case, the post mortem report suggests the cause of death as homicide or culpable homicide, then this order of bail shall stand automa(cid:5)cally recalled within 15 days of receipt of such post-mortem. Given this, the concerned inves(cid:5)gator/SHO/Deputy Superintendent of Police are directed to communicate the outcome of the post-mortem report to the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner to enable her to take appropriate legal recourse. 14. Without commen(cid:5)ng on the case's merits, in the facts and circumstances peculiar to this case, and for the reasons men(cid:5)oned above, the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner makes a case for interim bail. 15. Given above, provided the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner is not required in any other case, the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner shall be released on an(cid:5)cipatory interim bail as detailed in para No.13 of this order in the FIR cap(cid:5)oned above subject to furnishing bonds to the sa(cid:5)sfac(cid:5)on of the Arres(cid:5)ng Officer, and if the maJer is before a Court, then the concerned Court and due to unavailability before any nearest Ilaqa Magistrate/duty Magistrate. Before accep(cid:5)ng the surety, the concerned Officer/Court must be sa(cid:5)sfied that if the accused fails to appear, such surety can produce the accused. 16. While furnishing a personal bond, the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner shall men(cid:5)on the following personal iden(cid:5)fica(cid:5)on details: 1. AADHAR number 2. Passport number (If available) and when the aJes(cid:5)ng officer/court considers it appropriate or considers the accused a flight risk. 3. Mobile number (If available) E-Mail id (If available) 4. 17.
Legal Reasoning
This order is subject to the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner’s complying with the following terms. 18. The pe++oner is directed to join the inves+ga+on as and when called by the Inves+gator. The pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner shall be in deemed custody for Sec(cid:5)on 27 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872/ Sec(cid:5)on 23 of BSA, 2023. The pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner shall join the inves(cid:5)ga(cid:5)on as and when called by the Inves(cid:5)ga(cid:5)ng Officer or any Superior Officer and shall cooperate with the inves(cid:5)ga(cid:5)on at all further stages as required. In the event of failure to do so, the prosecu(cid:5)on will be open to seeking cancella(cid:5)on of the bail. During the inves(cid:5)ga(cid:5)on, the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner shall not be subjected to third-degree, indecent language, inhuman treatment, etc. 19. The pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner shall abide by all statutory bond condi(cid:5)ons and appear before the concerned Court(s) on all dates. The pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner shall not tamper with the evidence, influence, JYOTI 2025.03.12 15:55 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this order/judgment. CRM-M-7984-2025 6 browbeat, pressurize, induce, threaten, or promise, directly or indirectly, any witnesses, Police officials, or any other person acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case or dissuade them from disclosing such facts to the Police or the Court. 20. In case the Inves(cid:5)gator/Officer-In-Charge of the concerned Police Sta(cid:5)on arraigns another sec(cid:5)on of any penal offense in this FIR, and if the new sec(cid:5)on prescribes a maximum sentence that is not greater than the sec(cid:5)ons men(cid:5)oned above, then this bail order shall be deemed to have also been passed for the newly added sec(cid:5)on(s). However, suppose the newly inserted sec(cid:5)ons prescribe a sentence exceeding the maximum sentence prescribed in the sec(cid:5)ons men(cid:5)oned above; then, in that case, the Inves(cid:5)gator/Officer-In-Charge shall give the pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner no(cid:5)ce of a minimum of seven days, providing an opportunity to avail the remedies available in law. 21. Any observa(cid:5)on made hereinabove is neither an expression of opinion on the case's merits nor shall the trial Court advert to these comments. 22. A cer(cid:5)fied copy of this order would not be needed for furnishing bonds, and any Advocate for the Pe(cid:5)(cid:5)oner can download this order along with case status from the official web page of this Court and aJest it to be a true copy. If the aJes(cid:5)ng officer wants to verify its authen(cid:5)city, such an officer can also verify its authen(cid:5)city and may download and use the downloaded copy for aJes(cid:5)ng bonds. 23. Pe(cid:5)(cid:5)on stands disposed of in the aforesaid terms. All pending miscellaneous
Decision
applica(cid:5)ons, if any, stand disposed of. 12.03.2025 Jyo(cid:5)-II (ANOOP CHITKARA) JUDGE Whether speaking/reasoned: Whether reportable: Yes/No Yes/No. JYOTI 2025.03.12 15:55 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this order/judgment.