SURINDER SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Surinder Singh, the petitioner has prayed for pre-arrest bail in a case registered by way of FIR No. 369 dated 19.11.2011 at Police Station Matlauda, District Panipat for an offence punishable under sections 407, 420 of Indian Penal Code and section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 (for short, "the Act"). The case of the prosecution is that the carrier of the LPG cylinders had been pilfering the gas as well as selling the cylinders. On information, a raid was conducted by associating an inspector of Food and Supplies department, Panipat. Roshan and Jai Singh were found at the spot, while four persons including the petitioner, were reported to have fled on seeing the raiding party. What the raiding party found at the spot is that 127 cylinders of Indane were found unloaded from the truck and out of 179 cylinders found in the truck, 9 cylinders were found empty.

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that there is no evidence of involvement of the petitioner in the offence. According to him, his name has come on the record on being told by the other accused. He has submitted that in such cases, where accused were said to have fled from the spot, anticipatory bail has been granted by this court in various cases. These cases are reported as Daljit Singh v. State of Punjab, 2009 3 RCR(Cri) 186, Darshan Singh Pandit v. State of Haryana, 1996 3 RCR(Cri) 632, Amrik Singh v. State of Punjab, 2007 4 AICLR 861.

(3.) I have gone through the above cited cases. In Daljit Singh's case it was a case of regular bail. In Darshan Singh Pandit's case , the case was under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and it was observed that the plea of escape is improbable. Similar is the case in Amrik Singh's case . However, it has not been laid down as a rule in any of these cases that in case where a person escapes from the spot, he would be granted anticipatory bail. The police came to know of the identity of the persons who had escaped from the spot. The truck was found present at the place and 127 cylinders were found to have been unloaded from the truck. 9 cylinders were even found to be empty. There is no reason for empty cylinders to have been there in the truck, which was used for supplying the full gas cylinders. The offence in hand can be said to be one of the economic offences and such type of offences deprive many people of their rightful due. The people indulging in such crime are not entitled to any leniency. Moreover, the entire network of the people, who indulge in such offences has to be unearthed. Therefore, the petitioner is not entitled to the relief of anticipatory bail. Consequently, the petition is dismissed.