Crl. Misc. No. M-17854 of 2010(O&M) -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Crl. Misc. No. M-17854 of 2010(O&M) Date of decision : 20.04.2011 Ravinder Singh ......Petitioner versus State of Punjab and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE RITU BAHRI Present: Mr. Hitesh Sood, Advocate, for, Mr. Harsh Aggarwal, Advocate for the petitioner. Sh. Munish Kumar, A.A.G., Punjab **** RITU BAHRI , J. (Oral) The present petition has been filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C. for issuing direction to the respondents to lodge an FIR against Harjinder Singh, SHO, Police Station Phase-I, Mohali Brief facts of the case are that the allegations in the petition was that in the year 1999, mother of the petitioner namely Surjit Kaur and sister of the petitioner namely Jatinder Kaur alias Mithi went missing when the family of the petitioner was residing in UP. The local police at UP was informed about their missing but no action was taken by the police. Thereafter, the petitioner alongwith his family shifted to native village Chathe Sekhwan and started his business. On 15.2.2010, a mobile call was received from mobile No. 99146-76734 made by Inspector Harjinder Singh, Police Station Phase I, Mohali informing him that an FIR has been registered against the petitioner regarding missing of Surjit Kaur and Jatinder Kaur. The petitioner was Crl. Misc. No. M-17854 of 2010(O&M) -2- regularly given telephonic calls and was being threatened by Inspector Harjinder Singh of implication in some false case. The petitioner or his family members did not receive any summon from any court or police authorities. The above facts were brought into the notice of respondent No. 2-Senior Superintendent of Police, Sangrur vide representation dated 20.02.2010 (Annexure P1). On 20.02.2010, 4-5 persons in civil dress raided the house of the petitioner and took away the petitioner with them at about 7 P.M. The family of the petitioner was informed to keep in touch with Inspector Harjinder Singh. Thereafter, the son of the petitioner filed a writ petition bearing CRWP No. 347 of 2010 for heabus corpus. The police station was raided by the warrant officer. The petitioner alleges that he was released on 23.2.2010 from the illegal detention by Inspector Harjinder Singh. Thereafter, Inspector Harjinder Singh made a statement that son of the petitioner is neither wanted in any of the case in this police station nor he has even been picked up or detained by the police of Phase-I, Mohali. After this, the petitioner made a representation on 13.03.2010 to certain higher officials for taking appropriate action against Inspector Harjinder Singh (Annexure P3). It has further been mentioned that Inspector Harjinder Singh is already an accused in F.I.R No. 219 dated 2.6.2009 under Section 409 IPC registered at Police Station Sunam as he was misusing the vehicle which was a case property in some other case. Apart form this, number of complaints are pending against Inspector Harjinder Singh. On notice, a reply has been filed by PPS, Deputy Superintendent of Police, City-I, S.A.S Nagar, Mohali. In reply, a reference has been made to inquiry report (Annexure R-1/t) which was conducted on 21.8.2010. This enquiry was conducted in reference to the letter dated Crl. Misc. No. M-17854 of 2010(O&M) -3- 19.4.2010, 5.3.2010 and 19.4.2010. The enquiry was conducted by associating the complainant Ravinder Singh and Inspector Harjinder Singh, SHO, Phase-I, Mohali. After recording the statement of the complainant in which he had mentioned about the missing of his family members in the year 1998 at U.P. He had further stated that Inspector Harjinder Singh had given him threats of killing his mother and sister. On 20.02.2010, he was forcibly taken by 2-3 police officials and was kept in Police Station from 20.02.2010 to 23.02.2010. Son of the petitioner filed a writ petition bearing CRWP No. 347 of 2010 for heabus corpus and a warrant officer was appointed who raided the police station. Jeetan Sharma, Warrant Officer appointed by this Court got the search conducted however Ravinder Singh was not found to be present in the premises of Police Station. Statement of MHC Shamsher Singh 876/R was also recorded who stated that as far as allegations of picking up Ravinder Singh is concerned, it was submitted that nobody was immediately detained in Police Station, Phase I Mohali. On 23.3.2010, Warrant Officer raided at the premises of the Police Station but nobody in the name of Ravinder Singh was recovered from the Police Station. So, the complaint submitted by Ravinder Singh against Inspector Harjinder Singh were false. Statement of Head Constable Lakhbir Singh was also recorded in which he has stated that for the last two years, he was having the charge of Malkhana and the keys of malkhana remains with him. The allegations levelled that Ravinder Singh was confined in the malkhana is absolutely concocted and false as the malkhana situates in the same building of the Police Station. The duty officer posted in Police Station Phase I Mohali from Crl. Misc. No. M-17854 of 2010(O&M) -4- 20.02.2010 to 23.02.2010 i.e Purshotam Chand, ASI Harpal Singh, ASI Bawa Singh were associated with the inquiry and their statements were also recorded. They also showed their ignorance towards keeping Ravinder Singh in illegal confinement of the police Station. In view of the enquiry report, no further orders are required to be passed. However, giving liberty to the petitioner, if so advised, to take any other action as per law. (RITU BAHRI) JUDGE April 20, 2011 G.Arora