GURMEET SINGH DHILLON Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned Counsel for the petitioner.

(2.) The petitioner seeks pre-arrest bail in a case registered against him for the offences under Sections 420, 454 and 380 IPC.

(3.) The FIR in the case has been registered on the complaint of Bhavnish Kumar Ahlmad in the Court of Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division), Patiala. It has been alleged by the complainant regarding theft of a Court file of Civil Suit titled Sukhwinder Singh v. Nirmal Singh in a fraudulent manner. The complainant states that on 11.2.2010 at about 12.25 p.m. a person came to him and stated that his Advocate Mr. Achhar Kumar is to examine the case file titled Sukhwinder Singh v. Nirmal Singh which was fixed for 20.2.2010. An application for examination of the file was submitted to the complainant and he was asked to take out the file. The complainant brought the file and put the application for examination of the file in it. The file was placed aside on the table and the person who had come was asked to call his counsel. The complainant got busy in other work. In the meantime, the person who had come turned his face and called another person, namely, Buta Singh (son of the defendant-Nirmal Singh of the suit-the file of which was to be examined). The person who had come handed over the case file to Buta Singh without the permission of the complainant. The said person, namely, Buta Singh on the asking of the person who had come stole the file and fled away. The complainant raised an alarm and chased the said persons but due to rush in the Court, they ran away and stole the case file. The complainant went to the chamber of Shri Achhar Kumar, Advocate and he informed the complainant that Gurmeet Singh Dhillon (petitioner) and son of Nirmal Singh (defendant in the suit) had come to him. They after discussing their case titled Sukhwinder Singh v. Nirmal Singh had gone back. However, they brought an application drafted by him for inspection of the above noted case file, but did not come to him with the application for inspection of the file. Thereafter, the complainant came back to his room. He was sure that Gurmeet Singh Dhillon (petitioner) and Buta Singh aged about 25-26 years had fled away by committing theft of the file of the case titled Sukhwinder Singh v. Nirmal Singh. The nature of the case file relates to suit for recovery regarding monetary dealing. At the time, the staff of the complainant, namely, Reeta Rani-Copyist, Surjit Kaur-Execution Clerk and Jagjit Sigh-Criminal Ahlmad were present in the same room and they had witnessed the entire occurrence. The complainant could identify Gurmeet Singh Dhillon and Buta Singh if they appeared before him. It was requested that legal action may be taken against them. The application was submitted to the Presiding Officer of the Court. On this, the Chief Judicial Magistrate vide No. 187 dated 9.3.2010 forwarded the same to SSP of Patiala for registering a theft case of the case file titled Sukhwinder Singh v. Nirmal Singh. On the basis of the said allegations report No. 23 dated 16.3.2010 has been registered at Police Station Kotwali, Patiala.