Dr. Kanwaljit Singh v. State Of Punjab
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH
Date of Decision: 20.05.2024 Dr. Kanwaljit Singh ...Pe##oner
Versus
State of Punjab
...Respondent
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANOOP CHITKARA
Present:
Dr. Anmol Ra6an Sidhu, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Pratham Sethi, Advocate for the pe##oner.
Mr. Sukhdev Singh, A.A.G., Punjab.
Mr. Amit Arora, Advocate for the complainant.
**** ANOOP CHITKARA, J.
FIR No.
Dated Police Sta#on Sec#ons 03.04.2024 Vigilance Bureau, District Amritsar 7 of PC (Amendment) Act, 1.
The pe##oner, incarcerated in the FIR cap#oned above, has come up before this Court under Sec#on 439 CrPC.
2.
Vide order dated 13.05.2024, this Court had granted interim bail to the pe##oner and the said order is con#nuing #ll date. 3.
Prosecu#on case is being extracted from reply dated 20.05.2024 filed by concerned DySP which reads as follows:- "3. That the brief and relevant facts of the case are that the aforesaid FIR No. 19 dated 03.04.2024 was registered on the statement of Dharambir Singh son of Sh. Santokh Singh resident of Gali Mata Lacho Wali, Mohalla Tak Kshetri, Near Gurudwara Bhagat Baba Namdev Ji, Tarn Taran, recorded by the Inspector, Vigilance Bureau, Unit Tarn Taran, who had alleged in his aforesaid statement that he was working as a District Incharge for the Dainik Jagran Newspaper being journalist having 27 years of experience and his elder son Harmanbir Singh was a
partner of a firm namely Majha Enterprises along with Sukhdev Singh and the aforesaid firm has taken a contract for the running of a canteen in the Civil Hospital, Tarn Taran in the year 2023, which was con8nuing in the year 2024 with 10% enhancement. He further alleged that he used to look a:er the working of aforesaid canteen along with his son and the pe88oner, who was working as a Senior Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, Tarn Taran used to harass him (complainant Dharambir Singh) by raising demand of bribe for the opera8on of the canteen and also threatening him to cancel the contract of the canteen by poin8ng out defects in the food item prepared and sold in the aforesaid canteen. He further alleged that the pe88oner was demanding Rs.
50,000/- from him as bribe and he (Dharambir Singh) had called him through whatsapp on his mobile No. 98558-01144 from his mobile No. 70090-94215 and talked to him on speaker phone to request him to reduce the bribe amount and their conversa8on was video recorded by his son Harmanbir Singh through his mobile phone. He further alleged during the aforesaid conversa8on, the pe88oner agreed to accept Rs. 25,000/- as bribe from him by reducing the amount from Rs. 50,000/- but therea:er, he again became adamant on his demand of Rs. 50,000/- as bribe, which his conscious did not allow him to pay to the pe88oner but he had made a false promise with him to pay the aforesaid amount of Rs. 50,000/- as per his demand and demanded appropriate legal ac8on against the pe88oner.
He also presented a pendrive containing video recording of the phone conversa8on between him and the pe88oner along with Rs. 50,000/- in cash i.e. 100 currency notes of Rs. 500/- each, for using the same during the trap for the red handed arrest of the pe88oner, which were taken into Police possession vide presenta8on memo dated 03.04.2024. The detailed facts men8oned by him in his aforesaid statement have been reproduced in the true transla8on of the FIR No. 19 dated 03.04.
of the present paragraph as same are not repeated for the sake of brevity.
4.
That a:er recording the aforesaid statement of the complainant, the Inspector, Vigilance Bureau, Unit Tarn Taran, decided to lay a trap to arrest the pe88oner red-handed while accep8ng the bribe amount from the complainant and joined Sh. Lalit Kumar, Senior Assistant, Water Supply and Sanita8on, Division No. 2, District Tarn Taran and Ms. Lovejit Singh, Junior Engineer, Water Supply and Sanita8on, Sub-Division Tarn Taran as a shadow witnesses in the raiding team to witness the red handed arrest of the pe88oner while accep8ng the bribe amount from the complainant and the recovery of the bribe amount from him during the trap proceedings. The amount of Rs. 50,000/- i.e., 100 currency notes of Rs.
500/- each, presented by the complainant before him for the purpose of its use during the trap proceedings, was taken into Police possession by no8ng down serial numbers of all the currency notes in the presenta8on memo and smeared with phenolphthalein powder and handed over to the complainant to give to the pe88oner according to his demand. Before proceeding to conduct the raid, the inves8ga8ng officer demonstrated and explained the en8re procedural formali8es for conduc8ng raid, arrest and recovery of the bribe amount from the accused person during the trap to the complainant and the aforesaid shadow witnesses. He also prepared the requisite documents and got registered the FIR at the Police sta8on Vigilance Bureau, Amritsar. 5.
That therea:er, the inves8ga8ng officer along with his team of officials, the complainant and aforesaid shadow witnesses proceeded towards the Civil Hospital, Tarn Taran. A:er reaching at the aforesaid office of the pe88oner at Civil Hospital, Tarn Taran, the shadow witness Lovejit Singh, incidentally got separated from the complainant due to heavy rush of Public at the Civil Hospital, Tarn Taran and could not enter into the room of the pe88oner in 8me along with the complainant but the complainant entered into the room of the
pe88oner and handed over the cash amount of Rs. 50,000/- to him, while the shadow witness Lovejit Singh was trying to trace the complainant and met him, when he was coming out of the room of the pe88oner a:er handing over the aforesaid cash amount. The complainant told the shadow witness Lovejit Singh that he had handed over the bribe amount of Rs. 50,000/- to the pe88oner, who had kept the same without coun8ng it, in the iron almirah kept in room aEached with office in the hospital. Therea:er, aforesaid shadow witness Lovejit Singh signaled the inves8ga8ng officer to come inside the office of the pe88oner to proceed further and the inves8ga8ng officer along with his team, complainant and both shadow witnesses entered into the office of the pe88oner. The complainant told the inves8ga8ng officer that the pe88oner was Dr.
Kanwaljit Singh, Senior Medical Officer, Tarn Taran by poin8ng out towards him and therea:er, the inves8ga8ng officer introduced him to the pe88oner and instructed him not to move from his spot. A:er that the fingers of right hand of pe88oner was got washed in separate glass of water mixed with a solu8on of sodium carbonate, which turned into light pink on doing so by him. The aforesaid solu8ons was put into a separate clean boEle and sealed with his seal 'S.S' and taken into Police possession as evidence as per the procedure. Therea:er, the bribe money i.e., Rs. 50,000/- in the shape of 100 currency notes of Rs.
500/- each, were got recovered from the second shelf of the iron Almirah lying in the room aEached to the office of the pe88oner through shadow witness Lalit Kumar and the series numbers of recovered currency notes were matched with the list (prepared before conduc8ng the raid in his office by the inves8ga8ng officer) by the official witness and all the numbers matched with each other. The recovered currency notes i.e., bribe money, were taken into Police possession vide separate recovery memo by the inves8ga8ng officer as per the procedure and the pe88oner was arrested vide arrest memo dated 03.04.2024.
6.
That the true transla8on of the transcript of the conversa8on between the complainant Dharambir Singh and the pe88oner on whatsapp call recorded by Harmanbir Singh (son of the complainant) through his mobile phone rela8ng to the demand of the bribe by the pe88oner is aEached herewith for the kind considera8on of this Hon'ble court as Annexure R1/T." 4.
In pursuance of order dated 13.05.2024, counsel for the pe##oner has handed over two sets of affidavits to the State counsel who has given the same to the Inves#gator. One set be sent to pe##oner's employer and one set be kept by the Inves#gator for their records.
5.
Given above, the pe##on is allowed and interim order dated 13.05.2024 is made absolute. All pending applica#ons, if any also stand closed. (ANOOP CHITKARA) JUDGE 20.05.2024 Jyo# Sharma Whether speaking/reasoned:
Yes Whether reportable:
No.