SUKHPAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Upon his arrest in the FIR captioned above, the petitioner, who is in custody for allegedly abducting, falsely implicating and duping the complainant party for a sum of Rs.13,50,000,.00 on the pretext of getting a favorable statement in an alleged FIR registered against the complainant's brother and his friend under Sec. 376-D and Sec. 4 of POCSO Act, have come up before this court under Sec. 439 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC) seeking bail.

(2.) The complainant gave a written complaint to SSP Barnala, in which he alleged that on March 16, 2021, he received a phone call from his brother Gurtej Singh who told him that he and his friend Gursewak Singh, who is a co-villager, had been kidnapped and the kidnappers were demanding a ransom of Rs.25,00,000.00 for their release. His brother asked him to arrange the money and save their lives. He appeared to be very tense, and asked him not to disclose this to anyone. The complainant started arranging money and was able to collect a sum of Rs.5.006 lacs, and in the meanwhile, he was continuously receiving phone calls, and the kidnappers started threatening him and demanding money. However, the complainant started recording their calls. The kidnappers asked him to come towards a place and warned him not to disclose it to anyone, or else they would kill the kidnapped person. On reaching the place at about 10 P.M, some persons met them, and they told him that Gurtej and Gursewak had raped a girl from their village. At that time, ASI Dharampal and ASI Pritpal Singh also reached the spot and took them to the police station Dhuri, and with their intervention, the matter was compromised for an amount of Rs. Five lacs. As per the compromise, the complainant party handed over a sum of Rs.2.5 lacs each to ASI Dharampal and ASI Pritpal and returned to their village along with the kidnapped persons.

(3.) The following day, Gurtej Sigh and Gursewak Singh told a shocking revelation. They told the complainant that one Bikar Singh had called them for keeping an evil eye on his wife a few days earlier and said that he had the audio recordings of their conversations. He asked them to meet them at the Barnala bus stand. On reaching there, 4-5 persons, including a woman, came there, and they introduced themselves as Pardeep Singh, Gurpreet Singh alias Vicky, Bikar Singh, Sukhpal Singh, and Sandeep. After some time, these 4-5 persons followed him and his friend to fields and thrashed them and asked them to do as they say on a video clip. They gave in due to the beatings and fear and started saying things they asked them to say on a video being recorded by these persons. After that, they demanded Rs. Twenty-five lacs and forced them into their car and took them away. It was then that he called his brother (complainant) and narrated him that he had been kidnapped and the compromise was effected for 5 lakhs.