Raghu Bansal v. State of Punjab

CORAM : Hon'ble Ms. Justice Nirmaljit Kaur Present:- Mr. A.P.S. Deol, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Daldeep Singh, Advocate Mr. Amit Jhanji, Advocate Crl. Misc. No.M-24689 of 2010 2 Mr. Gaurav Mohunta, Advocate Mr. Veneet Sharma, Advocate and Mr. Deepak Aggarwal, Advocate Mr. B.R. Gupta, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. K.S. Pannu, D.A.G., Punjab for the respondent-State. Mr. Rakesh Nehra, Advocate for the complainant. *****

1. Whether Reporters of Local Newspapers may be allowed to see the judgment ?

2. To be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest ? ** NIRMALJIT KAUR, J. This Order shall dispose of Crl. Misc. No.M-24689 of 2010, Crl. Misc. No.M-24007 of 2010, Crl. Misc. No.M-25177 of 2010, Crl. Misc. No.M-24476 of 2010 and Crl. Misc. No.M-23848 of 2010 by passing a common judgment as all the bail applications are arising out of the same FIR bearing No.199 dated 28.7.2010 registered under Sections 406,420 IPC at Police Station Sadar Rajpura, District Patiala. Crl. Misc. Nos.M-24689, 24007 and 25177 of 2010 have been filed under Section 438 Cr.P.C for grant of anticipatory bail whereas, Crl. Misc. Nos.23848 and 24476 of 2010 are petitions under Section 439 Cr.P.C for grant of regular bail. For the sake of convenience, the facts are being taken from Crl. Misc. No.M-24689 of 2010. It is contended by learned counsel for the petitioner that Daljit Singh and Waryam Singh (co-accused) entered into an agreement to sell land measuring 48 Bigha 17 Biswa comprised in Khewat Khatauni No.67/130, Khasra No.250 to 265 situated at Village Batehri, Tehsil Rajpura, District Patiala on 22.06.2005 with Prem Singh, Devinder Singh, Crl. Misc. No.M-24689 of 2010 3 Amarjit Singh, Jasmer Singh, Paramjit Singh, all sons of Natha Singh and Surjit Kaur widow of Bakhtaur Singh resident of Village Batehri (co-sharers, all co-accused in this case). In pursuance to this agreement to sell dated

22.06.2005 both Daljit Singh and Waryam Singh (co-accused) entered into a further agreement to sell this piece of land measuring 48B-17B with Naresh Kumar, Raghunath, Kewal Krishan and Sham Lal vide agreement to sell dated 26.12.2005. The date of execution of sale deed was kept on

21.05.2007 i.e. one month prior to the execution of the sale deed which was to be executed by Prem Singh etc. original owner in favour of Daljit Singh and Waryam Singh. Daljit Singh and Waryam Singh failed to bring the original owners i.e. Prem Singh etc. to directly execute and register the sale deed on their names or to execute the same by obtaining a GPA from original owners i.e. Prem Singh etc. It was further contended that Naresh Kumar co-accused got his share of money by executing the sale deeds on the basis of GPA directly from the original owners by using Ashok Kumar. Therefore, Ashok Kumar felt cheated and got lodged the present FIR against the petitioner and others with the allegations that he has been cheated of his share of 5% in the proposed colony by Raghu Bansal, as well as, his three partners. It was thus submitted that the dispute is of civil nature with regard to distribution of profits of sold property and the civil suit filed by the petitioner for specific performance of his contract against Daljit Singh and others is also pending qua the dispute. Learned counsel for the complainant, however, vehemently opposed the bail application for grant of bail and anticipatory bail on the ground that the complaint was investigated and it was found that fraud has been played by the petitioner along with other co-accused, whereby, they have sold out small pieces of land in the shape of plots after carving out illegal colony and have taken huge money from small people without any authorization and in an illegal manner. Crl. Misc. No.M-24689 of 2010 4 Learned counsel for the parties have been heard. It is not disputed that the complaint was marked for enquiry to DSP, Economic Wing, Sector 17, Chandigarh and Sh. D.S. Chadha, DSP (EOW) who enquired into the complaint and found that the dispute is of a civil nature with regard to distribution of profits of the sold property. Thereafter, the SSP (Headquarters) filed the complaint after taking opinion from the Deputy DA. It is also not disputed that a Civil Suit has been filed by Daljit Singh and Waryam Singh for possession by way of specific performance of agreement to sell dated 22.06.2005 against the original land owners. Another similar suit has been filed for possession by way of specific performance of contract for sale dated 26.12.2005 by Naresh Kumar, Raghunath and Sham Lal against Daljit Singh, Waryam Singh against the original land owners. Thus, the grievance of the complainant as appears from the FIR itself is with respect of having not received his share of profits which is evident from the allegations in the FIR and reads as under :- “ Raghu Bansal and others persons came into my life to spoil, ruin, damage my reputation and peace of mind in the month of November and December 2005 with the fraudulent intention and with a cheating concept of setting up a colony by them and they offered me a 5% of share in that colony and they had to pay Rs.1 Crore to some commission agent. Being a neighbour, I have believed on Raghu Bansal.” It is not disputed that the petitioners in Crl. Misc. No.M-24007 of 2010 are not even named in the FIR. Moreover, it is also not disputed by learned counsel for the respondent-State, on instructions from ASI Gulzar Singh that the petitioners in Crl. Misc. No.M-24689 of 2010, Crl. Misc. No.M-24007 of 2010 and Crl. Misc. No.M-25177 of 2010 have since joined the investigation. Crl. Misc. No.M-24689 of 2010 5 Accordingly, the petitions are allowed and the Orders dated

25.08.2010, 20.08.2010 and 30.08.2010 passed in Crl. Misc. No.M-24689 of 2010, Crl. Misc. No.M-24007 of 2010 and Crl. Misc. No.M-25177 of 2010, respectively, granting interim bail are made absolute. In view of the above, the petitioners in Crl. Misc. Nos.M- 23848 and 24476 of 2010 are also ordered to be released on bail to the satisfaction of Chief Judicial Magistrate/Illaqa Magistrate, Patiala.

22.09.2010 gurpreet (NIRMALJIT KAUR) JUDGE