GURINDER SINGH DHILLON Vs. CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment of mine shall dispose of three Crl. Misc. Nos. M-38570,37001 and 39482 of 2018 as identical question of law is involved in all the three cases. However, for the sake of convenience, the facts have been extracted from Crl. Misc. No. M-38570 of 2018.

(2.) The present petition has been filed by petitioner-Gurinder Singh Dhillon under Section 482 Cr.P.C. for constituting a Special Investigating Team (SIT) of the CBI to conduct an independent inquiry to probe the nexus between complainant-Shiv Kumar Sharma and accusedAshok Goyal to falsely implicate him in the case. A further prayer has also been made to give a prior/advance notice of seven days to him in case the investigating agency requires/seeks his arrest in case FIR No. RCCHG2018A0017 dated 14.8.2018 registered under Section 7-A of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act, 2018') at Police Station CBI, ACB, CHG, Chandigarh.

(3.) Briefly, the facts of the case as made out in the present petition are that the petitioner is presently posted as Inspector General of Police, Human Rights, Punjab, Chandigarh. Earlier he was posted as Inspector General of Police, Ferozepur Range, Ferozepur. A notice under Section 160 Cr.P.C. was served upon him by Deputy Superintendent of Police, CBI (respondent No.2) to join investigation as a witness in aforesaid FIR dated 14.8.2018 directly,whereas, the same was required to be served upon him through his superior controlling officer. Said notice was accepted by the petitioner and sought time to join investigation within a period of four to five days preferably on 4.9.2018 just to bring this fact to the notice of DGP, Punjab and for seeking approval for the same. Thereafter, he filed the present petition, which came up for hearing on 4.9.2018, wherein, it was stated that in pursuance of notice issued under Section 160 Cr.P.C., he was ready to join investigation as required but apprehended that chances were there of his arrest during joining of investigation. However, an undertaking was given that the petitioner was ready to appear and cooperate with the investigation but atleast an opportunity be given before taking any action against him and not to arrest all of a sudden during period of joining investigation. While issuing notice of motion a direction was also issued by this Court to respondent-CBI not to adopt any coercive method during investigation.