Second judge recuses from hearing Umranangal’s plea

DID NOT CITE ANY REASON FOR THE RECUSAL; EARLIER, ON TUESDAY THE BENCH OF JUSTICE HS SIDHU HAD RECUSED FROM HEARING THE CASE

CHANDIGARH: A second judge of the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday recused from hearing the anticipatory bail plea of suspended inspector general of police (IGP) Paramraj Singh Umranangal in Behbal Kalan firing case.

Presiding over a single-judge bench, justice Deepak Sibal on Wednesday ordered that case be listed before some other bench.

However, he did not cite any reason for the recusal.

He also requested the registry that since the petition pertains to the liberty of the petitioner, orders for listing be obtained so that it could be listed on Thursday. Earlier, on Tuesday the bench of justice HS Sidhu had recused from hearing the case without recording any reason for the recusal.

The matter has now been assigned to the bench of justice Raj Mohan Singh for Thursday.

The Faridkot trial court has already dismissed his plea. Umranangal is accused in the case registered at the Baja Khana police station in Faridkot.

The case was registered on October 21, 2015, a week after two protesters were allegedly killed in police firing at Behbal Kalan in the aftermath of incidents of sacrilege reported at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala.

Former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and Umranangal were chargesheeted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Punjab Police on January 15 in this case.

Meanwhile, the high court bench of justice Arun Kumar Tyagi extended interim protection to former DGP Saini from arrest till further orders.

The matter has been listed for March 16 now. The order was passed in 2018 plea in which he had sought a blanket bail from arrest alleging victimization by the present Congress government in the state.

The high court extended September 23, 2020 order in which it was directed that a notice of seven days be given to Saini if the state contemplates to arrest him in a criminal case for the time period of his entire service.

Saini is being probed by state agencies in Sacrilege violence cases of 2015 and murder of a former bureaucrat’s son in 1991.