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Punjab & Haryana High Court: Bail Petition heard through Video Conferencing for grant of Regular Bail

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Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi took the present case for hearing through video conferencing where after petitioner’s first petition was dismissed and the second was accepted and interim bail was granted to him.

The case of Hawa Singh v. the State of Haryana on 3 April 2020 was taken up in the Punjab-Haryana High Court where the petitioner filed the present i.e. the second petition under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for grant of regular bail under Sections 323326307 and 507 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860  and Section 25 of the Arms Act, 1959 registered at Police Station Gharaunda, District Karnal.

Brief facts of the case are:

The FIR against the petitioner was registered on the statement of Sumit Kajal, who alleged that about a year back after demarcation, one bigha of their land was included in the fields of accused Hawa Singh. He made a dole of 1 of the 5 of their land and took the possession of the land.

Later on, he along with his father Dalbir went to the field for work where he saw the accused Hawa Singh, along with his partners conspiring with Surender Kumar, the Ex. Sarpanch of the village, and were with weapons of offence and had removed the dole prepared by the complainant party.

The dispute started arising when the complainant and his father asked the petitioner and his partners as to why they had removed the dole. Meanwhile, Parveen, the complainant’s elder brother Bhupender and his mother Santosh also reached in the fields.

When Hawa Singh found the situation, not in his favour, fired on the father of the complainant with his gun in an intention to kill. When Bhupender tried to save his father, the accused Parveen Binna took the gun from the petitioner and fired upon the face of Bhupender. Seeing this, Parveen tried to save Bhupender when the accused Pawan took the gun from Parveen Binna and fired upon Parveen hitting on the right side of his chest.

Due to the gunshot injuries, Dalbir Singh, Bhupender and Parveen fell down on the ground where afterwards, the accused Hawa Singh and others inflicted injuries to the complainant party including the mother Santosh, with danda, lathis and hockey.

One of the accused then fired a gunshot upon the complainant with an intention to kill him but the complainant saved himself by fleeing away from the spot.

Learned counsel for the petitioner argued that:

The petitioner is a 71-year-old man and is suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] with hypertension with off, on chest pain and constipation. He was referred to Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College and Hospital, Karnal and PGIMER, Chandigarh, a number of times.

The case involves the question as to which of the party was the aggressor due to version and cross-version of the respective parties.

The petitioner received seven injuries.

As per the discharge summary, Dalbir Singh received grievous injury on his arm which is not attributed to the petitioner.

Co-accused Pawan and Parveen Binna have already been granted bail by this Court respectively.

The trial is likely to take long time and the petitioner is ready to abide by the terms and conditions regarding his appearance before the Court.

Therefore, the petitioner may be granted regular bail.

Learned State counsel argued that:

The petitioner having committed serious offence does not deserve the grant of regular bail. His first petition for grant of regular bail was dismissed as withdrawn. Therefore, the petition may be dismissed.

Court’s observation and judgement:

After hearing both the counsels and going through the record, the court observed that,

On being confronted with the order of dismissal of an earlier petition as withdrawn, learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petition to be treated as being for and restricted to grant of interim bail to the petitioner in view of his ailments and susceptibility to fatality in case of infection of Covid-19 and lack of appropriate medical facilities during confinement in jail.

Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, and the consequent susceptibility of the petitioner to fatality in case of infection of Covid-19 and lack of requisite medical facilities in jail, the court is of the considered view that the petitioner may be extended the concession of interim regular bail for a period of one and half months.

Therefore, the petition is allowed and the petitioner is ordered to be released on interim regular bail for a period of one and half months on furnishing of bail bonds to the satisfaction and shall surrender before the Superintendent of the concerned jail immediately on expiry of the period of interim bail.


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