Criminal Misc. No. M-7626 of 2011 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Criminal Misc. No. M-7626 of 2011 Date of decision : 18.03.2011 Puneet Sharma ....Petitioner V/s State of Punjab ....Respondent BEFORE : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJAN GUPTA Present: Mr. R.S. Bajaj, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Arshvinder Singh, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab. RAJAN GUPTA J. (ORAL) This is a petition filed under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking pre-arrest bail in a case registered against the petitioner vide FIR No. 211 dated 22.08.2010 under Sections 419/420/467/468/471/120-B IPC at Police Station Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that petitioner is only a witness to the sale-deed and thus cannot be said to have any role to play in the commission of crime. According to him, petitioner having innocently signed the sale-deed as a witness cannot be stated to be a part of the conspiracy allegedly hatched and thus he is entitled to the concession of pre-arrest bail. Criminal Misc. No. M-7626 of 2011 2 Learned State counsel has, however, opposed the prayer for pre-arrest bail. He submits that in the disclosure statement of Paramjit Kaur recorded by the investigating agency, clear cut role is assigned to the petitioner. According to him, she was paid a sum of `75,000/- by the petitioner to impersonate as Charanjit Kaur. Heard. A forged power of attorney of Charanjit Kaur was prepared by impersonation and then sale-deed was executed. The petitioner namely Puneet Sharma was witness to the sale-deed in question. The allegation levelled against the petitioner is that he along with co-accused conspired to grab the property of Charanjit Kaur. According to investigating agency, the lady who impersonated as Charanjit Kaur was arranged by the petitioner after payment of some amount. In view of nature of allegations levelled against the petitioner, I am of the considered view that petitioner is not entitled to the concession of pre-arrest bail. Accordingly, the present petition is without any merit and the same is hereby dismissed. March 18, 2011 (RAJAN GUPTA) Ajay JUDGE