Punjab & Haryana High Court Refuses To Grant Bail To Army Man Accused Of Sending Information About Military Stations To Co-Accused With Pak Links

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has refused to grant regular bail to an Army personnel Harpreet Singh, who is accused of providing secret information and documents to a co-accused, who was apprehended allegedly with 70 grams of heroin in 2021.The bench of Justice Manjari Nehru Kaul said, “Prima facie there are very grave, serious and specific allegations against the petitioner of having supplied critical information and photographs pertaining to various army installations to the co-accused who in turn supplied it to Pakistan for which they all received money.”In 2021, Singh along with Ranjit Singh @ Ranvir Singh @ Rana and Gurpreet Singh @ Gopi was booked for sedition and other offences for supplying classified information to Pakistan through drug peddlers.The FIR was lodged under Sections 21(b)/29 of the NDPS Act, Sections 3, 5 and 9 of Official Secret Act, 1923 and Sections 120-B and 124-A of the IPC at Police Station Mehatpur, District Jalandhar Rural.The counsel for the petitioner argued that Singh has been falsely implicated in the case based on a disclosure statement allegedly made by a co-accused. He further submitted that no recovery was made from the petitioner.On the other hand, the counsel for the State submitted that there are serious allegations against the petitioner of having compromised with the safety and security of the nation by sharing secret documents and information about various military installations/stations with co-accused Ranjit Singh @ Ranvir Singh @ Rana, who thereafter sent it across the border to Pakistan.He further submitted that when the co-accused, Ranjit Singh @ Ranvir Singh @ Rana, was apprehended by the police along with 70 grams of heroin, a mobile phone was recovered during his personal search. The phone contained all the aforementioned critical and secret information, including images of patrolling programs of various units deployed across the Line of Control, as well as details of army posts and helipads, he added.Considering the submissions, the court rejected the bail plea.Case Title: Harpreet Singh @ Happy v. State of PunjabCitation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 125Appearance: Nagar Singh, Munish Kumar, Advocates for the petitioner.Amit Rana, Sr. DAG, Punjab.Click Here To Read/Download Order

Punjab & Haryana High Court Refuses To Grant Bail To Army Man Accused Of Sending Information About Military Stations To Co-Accused With Pak Links

Aiman J. Chishti

Tags