Zorawar Singh & Anr vs Gurbax Singh Bains & Ors

2. On 28.09.2010, a complaint was given by one Karnail Singh alleging that on the intervening night of 27th and 28th of September 2010 in a road accident between a Ford Endeavour Car having registration No. PCP 17 driven by Zorawar Singh i.e. the present Appellant No.1 and a truck bearing Registration No. HR 58- 3264 at Liberty Chowk, Rajpura, District Patiala, two students namely Gagandeep Singh Bains (son of the present respondent no.1) and Gaurav Verma died and the other two occupants of the car namely Appellant No.1 and one Jaskaran Singh got badly injured and were moved to the hospital . On these allegations FIR No.219 was registered under section 304A, 279, 337, 427 IPC at Police Station, Rajpura against the driver of the truck.

3. Respondent No.1 however submitted representation to the Director General of Police, Punjab alleging that his son had not died in that accident but was murdered in a pre-planned manner. Similar such representation in the form of an application dated 21.02.2011 was sent by Respondent No.1 to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana which was registered as Diary No.350 dated 23.02.2011 and was placed before a learned Single Judge who directed that the application be placed on the judicial side of the High Court. Accordingly a note was prepared by the office of the High Court on 26.02.2011 requesting the learned Chief Justice whether the petition could be registered under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. for transferring the case to CBI for investigation into the matter. The learned Chief Justice having given his approval, the matter was registered as Criminal Miscellaneous No.6656 of 2011 and was placed before a learned single Judge who by her order dated 03.03.2011 issued notice to the State of Punjab.

4. In the meantime the Principal Secretary, Home, Punjab vide his letter dated 27.02.2011 entrusted the matter to Shri Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh IPS, DIG (Crime) to conduct independent investigation and submit his report. The matter before the High Court stood adjourned from time to time and on 18.11.2011 the High Court was told that the enquiry was nearing completion. On the next date i.e., on 21.12.2011 the High Court was informed that the DIG (Crime) had concluded his enquiry and had recommended addition of offence under Section 302 IPC. The order passed by the High Court on 21.12.2011 was to the following effect:

7. Inspite of the aforesaid directions, the SIT went ahead and submitted its report on 01.03.2012, the conclusions wherein were to the effect that whatever happened was road accident and that the allegations levelled by Respondent No. 1 that it was an act of murder, were absolutely baseless. The matter appeared before the High Court on 24.04.2012 and the following order was passed:-

17. Before we part, we must record that we shall not be taken to have expressed any opinion as regards merits of the matter. We have dealt with the propriety of constitution of SITs and having set aside the reports thereof, tried to implement the logical consequence and the order of the High Court dated 24.04.2012. The matter shall and must be considered on its own merits at every stage.

18. We thus dismiss the present appeal in the aforesaid terms. The matter shall however be listed after three months or soon after the receipt of the Report of the Chief Secretary as stated above for further directions, if any.