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FIR against Ashu, others meant just to harass: HC

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court while quashing an FIR filed by Punjab vigilance bureau in Ludhiana against Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who was the food, civil supplies and consumer affa irs minister in the 2017-2022 Congress govt, and others in a corruption case pertaining to the alleged foodgrain ten der and transportation scam held that criminal procee dings were initiated in this case “just to harass them.”

“Launching of prosecution by complainant-Gurpreet Singh (unsuccessful bidder) is nothing but an example of giving a cloak of criminal offence to the contractual matter for procurement and transportation of food grains. In such a scenario, the irre sistible conclusion would be that criminal proceedings were initiated against petitioners by the VB at the instance of the complainant, just to harass them and as such, it amounts to misuse of powers by the bureau, for reasons which are unknown to law,” wrote Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu, who passed these orders while allowing a petition filed by Ashu, Sukhwinder Singh Gill, Harveen Kaur, and Paramjit Chechi.

FIR Quashing Lawyers Chandigarh High Court

They had sought directions to quash FIR No 11 dated August 16, 2022, registered under sections of IPC and other charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act at Police Station, VB, dis- trict Ludhiana. And also, the subsequent FIR filed against them on Sept 22, 2022 in Jalandhar. The HC on Friday had quashed two FIRs against Ashu and others. The order released on Tuesday primarily focused on the Ludhiana FIR and the HC held that since it had quashed the Ludhiana FIR against Ashu, the Jalandhar FIR being a successive FIR was also bound to meet the same fate.

The court observed that the second FIR at Jalandhar was registered in connection with the same or connected cognizable offence, alleged to have been committed during the same transaction, is not maintainable and, is a clear case of abuse of process of law.

The HC observed that allegations levelled in the FIR do not disclose any cognizable offence and at best, the complainant could have availed remedy of judicial review against the amended policy for 2020-21; but certainly, there was no occasion to prosecute the petitioners on that count. The bench also held that the petitioners Sukhwinder Singh Gill, Harveen Kaur, and Paramjit Chechi were nominated without any valid basis by the complainant-Gurpreet Singh and witness Rohit Kumar (another associate contractor of the complainant) and as such, it can be safely

said that the present case was registered by the vigilance bureau without verification of the facts. “Even no mens rea can be attributed to petitioners-Sukhwinder Singh Gill and Harv Gill and Harveen Kaur merely being govt employees; rather they discharged their duties with due diligence,” held the bench in its detailed order. On the prosecution of Paramjit Chechi (successful bidder) in the matter, the HC held that the unsuccessful bidders (Gurpreet Singh as well as witness-Rohit Kumar) had an axe to grind against him to wreak their vengeance. Mere bald allegation of providing fake registration numbers of vehicles by petitioner-Paramjit Chechi, does not constitute any offence.

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