In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh ...... Criminal Misc.-M No.26593 of 2008 ..... Date of decision:13.1.2009 Gurpreet Singh .....Petitioner v. State of Punjab .....Respondent .... Present: Mr. S.S. Rangi, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. P.S. Sidhu, Additional Advocate General, Punjab for the respondent-State. Mr. Ramneek Vasudeva, Advocate for the complainant. ..... S.S. Saron, J. Heard learned counsel for the parties. In this petition under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure the petitioner seeks pre-arrest bail in a case registered against him at Police Station Morinda, District Ropar for the offences under Sections 447, 511, 506, 427 and 379 IPC. The offence under Section 379 IPC was added later. The FIR in the case has been registered on the complaint of Amarjit Singh. It is stated that the sister of his grand-father (Bua of his father Kartar Singh) has a son, namely, Tehal Singh, who died issueless in 2007. The said Tehal Singh in 2004 executed a Will in favour of the complainant-Amarjit Singh to the extent of half share. The complainant was doing cultivation of the entire agricultural land since 2004 and even now paddy, Chari and Arhar is sown in the land. On the date of the occurrence i.e. 9.7.2008 at about 4.00 p.m. the complainant was going to Cr. Misc.-M No.26593 of 2008 [2] Kurali from his village on his motorcycle with his mother Surjit Kaur in order to get her medicines. When he reached near his land, he saw that Gurpreet Singh (petitioner) and another unknown person alongwith Mohindra Sarpanch were ploughing their fields where crops were sown. Jaspreet Singh son of Amrik Singh and Amrik Singh son of Mohinder Singh, residents of Village Khairpur Dandrali armed with `Kirpans' along with 10-12 more persons in 4-5 vehicles came to the land and raised `Lalkara'. The complainant on seeing them sped away from that place on his motorcycle and came towards Morinda and he informed his father about the incident on phone. When his father came from his duty, the complainant went with him to the fields. His other relatives also assembled. When they came at the spot they found the tiller of the tractor, `Suhaga' and five bags of fertilizer missing; besides, damage had been caused to the crop. The persons who were ploughing the crops had run away from the spot with their respective weapons. It may be noticed that the complainant Amarjit Singh claimed the land of Tehal Singh on the basis of an unregistered Will dated 24.12.2006 which it is stated was executed by Tehal Singh in his (Amarjit Singh's) favour to the extent of half share and the remaining half share in favour of Gursewak Singh son of Kuldip Singh. On the basis of the said Will, mutation No.612 of Village Khairpur was got entered. However, in view of the objections raised by Amrik Singh brother of Tehal Singh (deceased) the mutation was declared contested. The petitioner Gurpreet Singh is son of Amrik Singh, who is the brother of Tehal Singh. Harbhajan Kaur is the sister of Tehal Singh (deceased). By order dated 7.2.2008 (Annexure-P.1) the Assistant Collector Grade I, Chamkaur Sahib has not Cr. Misc.-M No.26593 of 2008 [3] accepted the Will set-up by Amarjit Singh-complainant and the mutation has been sanctioned in favour of the natural heirs i.e. Amrik Singh and Harbhajan Kaur, brother and sister respectively of the deceased Tehal Singh. The complainant-Amarjit Singh filed civil suit claiming injunction for restraining the defendants Amrik Singh and others from dispossessing the plaintiff from the suit land which was owned and possessed by Tehal Singh (deceased). Along with the suit the complainant-Amarjit Singh filed an application seeking temporary injunction. The learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Ropar vide her order dated 7.5.2008 (Annexure-P.3) has dismissed the said application. The complainant-Amarjit Singh then filed an appeal before the District Judge and the learned Additional District Judge, Rupnagar has vide her order dated 10.11.2008 dismissed the appeal of complainant-Amarjit Singh. The petitioner has also placed on record copy of Jamabandi for the year 2006-07 (Annexure-P.2) in which Tehal Singh is recorded as the owner in possession of the land measuring 33 Kanals. The fact of Mutation No.612 being sanctioned in favour of Amrik Singh and Harbhajan Kaur is mentioned in the remarks column. The learned counsel for the complainant has laid considerable emphasis that the complainant was in possession of the land since 2004 and the tiller of the tractor, `Suhaga' and five bags of fertilizers had been stolen by the petitioner from the land which are to be recovered. However, during the course of hearing he has not been able to show anything on record with respect to his possession. As against this the father of the petitioner, namely, Amrik Singh is the natural heir to the estate of Tehal Singh (deceased). Besides, as already noticed, mutation has been sanctioned in favour of Amrik Singh, the father of the petitioner as also Harbhajan Kaur, Cr. Misc.-M No.26593 of 2008 [4] the aunt of the petitioner by the learned Assistant Collector Ist Grade, Chamkaur Sahib vide order dated 7.2.2008 (Annexure-P.1). The learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Ropar has declined temporary injunction to the complainant vide order dated 7.5.2008 (Annexure-P.3). Besides, the appeal against the order of temporary injunction has been dismissed by the learned Additional District Judge, Rupnagar vide order dated 10.11.2008. The question of validity of the Will dated 24.12.2006 set-up by the complainant is to be gone into and determined by the Civil Court in the suit which is pending. In the circumstances, when the complainant is not shown to be in possession of the land it cannot at this stage be said that the petitioner had trespassed into the same or stolen the tiller of the tractor, `Suhaga' and five bags of fertilizer as has been alleged. In the circumstances, the interim bail granted to the petitioner vide order dated 16.10.2008 is liable to be made absolute. Consequently, the criminal miscellaneous petition is allowed and the interim bail granted on 16.10.2008 is made absolute and shall continue till the filing of the challan by the Police. Nothing stated herein shall be taken as an expression of opinion on the merits of the case between the parties and the investigations that are being conducted and the civil suit which is pending shall be considered by the investigating authorities and the Court as the case may be on the basis of evidence and material as available before it. January 13, 2009. (S.S. Saron) Judge *hsp*