PARAMJIT SINGH CHAHAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the second petition filed on behalf of the petitioner seeking bail in FIR No.56 Dated 15.5.2013 of Police Station Banur, District Patiala, under Sections 379, 411, 473, 468, 471, 212, 120 -B IPC and Sections 21, 22, 25, 25 -A, 27 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 and Sections 25 of the Arms Act, after his having surrendered and remanded to judicial custody on 14.11.2015. Before adverting to the factual matrix of the case, it would be appropriate to first take notice of the previous legal proceedings preferred at the instance of the petitioner in this regard. It is firstly noted that the petitioner was originally 1 of 8 granted bail by a Single Bench on 22.3.2014. But the State sought its cancellation. A Division Bench of this Court, in which, one of us (Surya Kant, J.) was a member, by its order dated 7.10.2015, cancelled the bail. The petitioner challenged such order of cancellation by way of SLP (Crl.) No.9391 of 2015. During pendency of the SLP, he surrendered before the Designated Court on 14.11.2015 and was remanded to judicial custody. The SLP was withdrawn two days later (on 16.11.2015) as the Supreme Court had granted him the liberty to seek his relief from the appropriate Forum. The Designated Court, however, rejected his petition for bail by its order dated 2.1.2016, after which, he approached this Court for the same relief. But the Division Bench rejected his prayer on 17.3.2016 by a detailed order (Annexure P5). He thereafter filed the present petition three months later on 20.6.2016.

(2.) Now to the factual matrix/substance of allegations contained in the FIR. It may be mentioned that in the previous order dated 17.3.2016, the Division Bench had taken note of the material facts and circumstances, which are now being re -visited in order to consider whether any new grounds justifying any deviation from the previous order, have arisen or not. It was noted in the earlier order -

(3.) Taking into account this background of the matter and after hearing the contesting sides, the Division Bench in rejecting the prayer for bail, had observed, inter -alia -