- (1.) The writ petition has been filed by the widow of one Sandeep Singh alias Bobby, seeking for transfer of investigation of case FIR No.561, dated 02.08.2009, under Section 302/ 120-B of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 25/54/59 of Arms Act. The petitioner's husband was killed in cold blood on 02.08.2009 and the complainant was the petitioner herself. She was not an eyewitness, but she had a ground to suspect that one Jagtar Singh son of Jagroop Singh of Bathinda as a possible culprit. Just before the death of her husband, he (Sandeep Singh) had been accompanied by two persons, whom the petitioner had known as persons seeking for lease of his lands at Janta Nagar in the bank of Sirhind canal. A little later, she was informed that two persons, that had accompanied her husband, had shot him down. At the time of his death, he was wearing a gold kara, gold ring, titan made watch and a mobile phone. All the articles had been removed from the body of her husband. The petitioner suspected that it was only Jagtar Singh, who would have got killed her husband in connivance with two persons as a revenge for the death of Jagtar's brother Harpal Singh and their servant Rasal Singh and for whose death, the petitioner's husband had been tried and convicted.
(2.) On the basis of the complaint, investigation had been undertaken and four persons, namely, Raj Kumar @ Raju, Sikander Singh, Pargat Singh and Karan Kumar, had been taken into custody but accused Jagtar Singh had not been apprehended. While the challan was filed under Section 173 Cr.P.C., an Investigating Officer had reported that Jagtar Singh was evading arrest. He had secured arrest warrants from Court returnable by 31.10.2009. The ASI, who had undertaken the investigation, had made an application for issuance of arrest warrant subsequently on 30.10.2009 and had the warrant of arrest issued again for 27.11.2009. Suddenly within a period of one week from the day when the warrant was got issued on 30.10.2009, the SHO had made an application for cancellation of arrest warrant on 06.11.2009, stating that there was no evidence against Jagtar Singh and, therefore, the application for warrant already issued could be cancelled. The SHO had stated that, from the investigation which was carried out and after recording the statement of witnesses and from the mobile call details of the accused, it seemed clear that the involvement of Jagtar Singh had not been proved except that the petitioner had complained that Jagtar Singh could have killed on account of past enmity involving the death of Jagtar Singh's brother and his servant.
(3.) The Senior Counsel Sh. Cheema, arguing on behalf of the petitioner, would point out to the fact that it was not as if that the petitioner had no reason why Jagtar Singh must have been the brain behind the trigger. On the conviction of the petitioner's husband in the murder of Jagtar Singh's brother and his servant, there had been a prayer for grant of pardon of sentence of life imprisonment awarded to him. In the petition filed for grant of pardon by the mother of the deceased, she had stated that her husband (father of the deceased) Teja Singh had been originally a minister in Shri Badal's Government, but since he had defected to Congress, the Chief Minister has a serious enmity with him and got him implicated in a false case. Jagtar Singh himself had opposed the pardon but it appears that the Governor had shown clemency and got issued the order of release dated 05.07.2006. The petitioner files in support of her contention of previous enmity, certain proceedings before the Commissioner, Faridkot, in relation to some land disputes between the deceased and Jagroop Singh and before the Additional District Judge, Bathinda, in relation to some mutation proceedings of the land holdings of the deceased's father. Apart from narrating several other civil litigations between parties, the petitioner would point out to the fact that her brother-in-law Daljit Singh, who was a permanent resident in USA, had also complained that the investigation did not proceed along the proper lines and there was a deliberate attempt to deflect the needle of suspicion elsewhere, when there were adequate materials to nail Jagtar Singh to the commission of offence.;