BALBIR SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has approached this Court seeking grant of anticipatory bail in respect of a case registered against him vide FIR No.215, dtd. 16/8/2021, Police Station Focal Point, District Police Commissionerate, Ludhiana, under Sec. 15 of NDPS Act.

(2.) As per the FIR on 16/8/2021, when a police party was patrolling in the area of Sahanewal-Kuhara Road, then one Accent Car bearing registration No.PB-02-AG-3355 was seen parked on a 'kachha' footpath and a Hindu gentleman stepped down from the car and who upon noticing the police party ran towards the fields. However, the said person was apprehended, who disclosed his name as Raj Kumar.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that he was never ever arrested at the spot and is sought to be nominated as an accused on the basis of a disclosure statement of one Raj Kumar which cannot carry any evidentiary value in the absence of any other clinching evidence to establish the complicity of the petitioner. Learned counsel has further submitted that it is highly unlikely that Raj Kumar would name his own relatives and implicate them as the petitioner is uncle of the said Raj Kumar while co-accused Sukhi and Peela are aunts of Raj Kumar. Learned counsel has further submitted that although the prosecution claims that Alto car bearing registration No. PB-08-CL-3121 allegedly recovered belongs to the petitioner but in fact the said car does not stands registered in the name of the petitioner and nor is there any evidence to show that the petitioner had purchased the said vehicle.