In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh ...... Criminal Misc. No.M-28937 of 2008 ..... Date of decision:18.3.2009 Abdul Rehman .....Petitioner v. State of Punjab .....Respondent .... Present: Mr. Mohit Jaggi, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Sudhir Nehra, Additional Advocate General, Punjab for the respondent-State. ..... S.S. Saron, J. The petitioner seeks pre-arrest bail in a case registered against him on 17.4.2008 for the offence under Section 379 IPC. The FIR has been registered on the statement of Balwant Singh, resident of Village Salho Majra, Police Station Chamkaur Sahib. It is stated by Balwant Singh-complainant that he purchased one Engine 18 years ago from his relative for Rs.3,000/-. On the said Engine “Lister Rajkot” in English was written. The Engine was installed at the Bore on the bank of pond for watering the fields. On 17.4.2008 at about 8.30 am., in the morning he saw that the said Engine was not there and some unidentified persons had stolen the Engine along with Gadrian by loading it in some vehicle the previous night. The complainant came to know that some unidentified persons had stolen the Engines of Darshan Singh son of Kartar Singh, Jarnail Singh son of Dara Singh, Amrik Singh son of Jagir Singh, Jarnail Singh son of Ujjagar Singh and Randhir Singh son of Amar Singh Cr. Misc. No.M-28937/2008 [2] residents of Salho Majra. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner is not named as an accused in the FIR and as he is on the wrong side of the Police, therefore, the Police wants to arrest him. It is submitted that the petitioner is likely to be involved in another theft case and he has not been able to join the investigation in the present case for the reason that if he appears in the police station he would be arrested in another case. In response, learned counsel for the State has submitted that the petitioner has been granted several opportunities to join the investigation but he has failed to join. It is further submitted that though the FIR is against the unknown person, however, in the investigation the co-accused of the petitioner were arrested and they had disclosed about the involvement of the petitioner. The said persons disclosed that they used to sell the Engines to the petitioner. Besides, it is submitted that recovery of the Engine is to be effected for which the custodial interrogation of the petitioner is required. After giving my thoughtful consideration to the matter, it may be noticed that the case involves the theft of Engines in Village Salho Majra and the Police requires the custody of the petitioner for the purpose of investigation. Despite interim bail granted by this Court, the petitioner has not joined the investigation. In the circumstances, no ground for grant of pre-arrest bail is made out. The criminal miscellaneous petition is dismissed. March 18, 2009. (S.S. Saron) Judge *hsp*