Punjab and Haryana High Court: In an anticipatory bail application filed by the accused for an FIR registered against him under Sections 127, 356, 74, 75, 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (‘BNS’), a Single Judge Bench of Namit Kumar, J., dismissed the application holding that the accused had acted in a Taliban style manner by blackening the faces of victims, parading them with placards and uploading a video of the same. The Court also held that the accused had been avoiding the process of law, and his custodial interrogation was necessary, thus if he was granted bail at this stage, he might influence or intimidate the witnesses and destroy the evidence.
Background
On the day of the incident, the complainant police official was informed that a video was going viral on social media in which three girls, an elderly woman, and a boy (‘victims’) with blackened faces were seen with white placards hanging around their necks which read “I am a thief, I confess my guilt”. Further, allegedly, the victims were being paraded around in the streets by some workers of Deep Collection Factory, Gurpreet Nagar, Ludhiana. The said factory was owned by the accused herein, who had accused the victims of stealing clothes from his factory.
The FIR was lodged against the accused and others under Sections 127, 356, 74, 75, 61(2) of BNS for the act of hanging placards around the necks of the said persons, making their video viral on social media, and maligning their image. Aggrieved by the FIR, the accused filed the present application.
Analysis
The Court noted that as per the status report filed by the State, the mobile phone of the accused and the video recorders installed in his factory were yet to be recovered and required for proper and fair investigation of the matter. Furthermore, the Court noted that while granting regular bail to the two co-accused, the Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana (‘Trial Court’), recorded that it was not known yet as to from whose mobile phone the video was uploaded and who had blackened the faces of the victims and put the placards around their necks. They were granted bail on account of the benefit of the doubt and pending investigation.
Moreover, the Trial Court, while rejecting anticipatory bail of the accused, specifically stated that one of the victims was a minor, and the application for adding offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, had been given to the police.
Considering the aforementioned and the material on record, the Court opined that the acts of the accused persons were not acceptable human acts by any stretch of the imagination rather they were acts of “Taliban-style punishment”. The Court expressed concern that the accused persons took the law into their own hands without realising that their acts might affect and tarnish the image and reputation of the victims before society at large, out of whom some were girls, and one was a minor, and might also spoil their future. Further, the Court noted that the investigation was at the initial stage, and the accused was evading the process of law.
Therefore, keeping in view the gravity of the offence, the Court held that there was no ground to grant anticipatory bail to the accused, as his custodial interrogation was required for the recovery of his mobile phone and the video recorders installed in his factory, and if he was granted anticipatory bail at this stage, he might influence or intimidate the witnesses and destroy the evidence.
Accordingly, the application was dismissed. However, the Court stated that if the accused chose to surrender before the Trial Court within 10 days and moved an appropriate application for regular bail, then the Trial Court shall consider and decide the same in accordance with the law.
[Parvinder Singh v. State of Punjab, CRM-M No. 11149 of 2025, decided on 12-03-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the petitioner: P.S. Ahluwalia, Jasraj Singh, and Jaiveer Singh
For the respondent: AAG Yuvraj Singh Tiwana and Vishavjeet Singh Rishi
Buy Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 HERE
