AJIT PAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Reply by way of affidavit of Jagjit Singh Walia, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sub Division, Attari, District Amritsar (Rural) filed in court is taken on record.

(2.) Challenge in the present petition is to the order dated 9.2.2011, passed by the learned court below, whereby the application filed by the complainant in the cross-version in FIR No. 77 dated 11.3.2007 for summoning Harpreet Singh Benipal as a witness was rejected. Initially the aforesaid person was summoned as a witness by the prosecution in the cross-version, however, later on the Public Prosecutor filed an application withdrawing his name from the list.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner, who is complainant in the cross-version in the aforesaid FIR, submitted that Harpreet Singh Benipal, who was Deputy Superintendent of Police at the relevant time, was entrusted with the enquiry. He had gone to the spot, summoned various persons and on verification of the statements made by them, submitted his report regarding the place of occurrence and also declared certain persons innocent. On his report, cross-version under Section 452, 324, 325, 148, 149 IPC was registered against the complainant in the FIR. Once Harpreet Singh Benipal, who was examined as a defence witness in the FIR and he made statement in the court regarding the incident in question, his evidence is relevant for the prosecution in the cross-version as well. Placing reliance upon a judgment of Hon'ble the Supreme Court in Himanshu Singh Sabharwal v. State of M.P. and others,2008 2 RecCriR 267, it is submitted that the learned court below should have exercised the power for summoning Harpreet Singh Benipal as a witness in support of the cross-version.