HC grants interim relief to cop, stays arrest till May 21

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has put a stay on the arrest of Punjab Police inspector Pardeep Singh, one of the accused in Behbal Kalan firing case, till May 21 while hearing his plea for anticipatory bail here on Wednesday.

The high court also directed the inspector to join the probe before the Special Investigation Team. After the HC granted relief to Pardeep, another accused cop, then Fazilka SP(D) Bikramjit Singh also applied for the anticipatory bail in the high court on Wednesday.

Pardeep’s counsel Jasjit Singh Bedi argued before the court that the inspector has been named in the Justice (retd) Ranjit Singh Commission report which alone can’t be considered a conclusive evidence against him.

Secondly, Pardeep has been attributed the bullet injury on one Beant Singh, but the bullet recovered from his body was probably of an AK-47 whereas the official weapon issued to Pardeep was different. Bedi assured the court that his client will join the investigation.

On February 2, the Faridkot district and sessions court had dismissed the bail application of then Fazilka SP (detective) Bikramjit Singh, then Bajakhana SHO sub-inspector Amarjit Singh Kular, and inspector Pardeep, who was the reader to then Moga SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma, in the case.

They had moved the petition after the SIT summoned the trio to appear before it on January 29 in Chandigarh, but they failed to turn up. Charanjit Sharma, also named as an accused in the case, was arrested by the SIT from his Hoshiarpur residence on January 27.

In August last year, the names of the four were added to the FIR registered in October 21, 2015, under Sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act at the Bajakhana police station in Faridkot following directions from chief minister Amarinder Singh.