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Attack on Dhandiranwale:Key accused Sukhwinder Singh gets bail after six years
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday granted bail to Sukhwinder Singh, a key accused in the attack on Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale in May 2016. Sukhwinder Singh was facing allegations that he was one of those persons who had fired at Dhandiranwale.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday granted bail to Sukhwinder Singh, a key accused in the attack on Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale in May 2016. Sukhwinder Singh was facing allegations that he was one of those persons who had fired at Dhandiranwale.
Preacher’s aide Bhupinder Singh had been killed in the shooting and Dhadrianwale was injured on May 17, 2016, in an attack on the Sikh preacher near Barewal village in Ludhiana. Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of village Gehari in Amritsar was associated with Damdami Taksal and the preacher had all along blamed Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal’s head, Harnam Singh Dhumma, for the attack. A total of 14 were named by police and a trial is still underway.
Sukhwinder Singh’s counsel, Salil Dev Singh Bali, had argued that the petitioner had been in custody for almost seven years. The trial is not likely to conclude at an early date as only five prosecution witnesses out of a total of 44 have been examined to date. There is no other criminal case pending against him. Other co-accused have been granted regular bail and thus, the petitioner deserves the same concession, Bali had submitted.
The court found that the petitioner had been in custody for six years and eight months, and there was one other criminal case under the NDPS Act pending against him.
The complainant in the case opposed the bail petition and submitted that the petitioner was one of those persons who had fired at Dhandiranwale. “The Baba has not yet recorded his statement, and thus, the hearing of the bail petition be deferred. That apart, the latest threat perception of the Baba shows that his life is in danger even today,” he had submitted.
However, in response to the query from the court, the state’s counsel had told the court that he had no instructions regarding any threat perception against Baba.
“…The trial is not likely to be concluded at an early date keeping in view the number of witnesses that have been examined till date. Assuming that the petitioner is the main accused and had shot at the Baba, he cannot be deprived of his liberty indefinitely. Expeditious decision of a trial is one of the basic tenets of criminal justice and if it is not followed it results in violation of the right to life of the petitioner enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” the bench of justice Sudhir Mittal observed granting him the bail with a condition that he would mark his presence in the local police station on the first day of every month.
