As per the case, an FIR was initially registered on the statement of one Sartaj, son of Kunj Lal, who was working as a salesman in a liquor store.The Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted bail to two residents of Punjab who were arrested in a case of sedition (section 124 -A) along with other sections of Indian Penal Code and UAPA, for allegedly being involved in pro-Khalistan ideology The court, while granting bail, said that βLaws like sedition, need narrower and stricter interpretation and the acts a person is charged with should reflect something more than expressing discontent against the state.β
The HC’s move to grant bail follows on the heels of the Supreme Court’s recent direction that all pending trials, appeals and proceedings with respect to the charge framed under Section 124-A of IPC in the country be kept in abeyance.
The petitioners in the present case, Dharminder Singh alias Fauji and Kirpal Singh, had been arrested in a FIR registered on May 31, 2018, under sections of attempt to murder (307), rioting (148), waging or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war against the Government of India (121), collecting arms with intention of waging war against the Government of India (122), sedition (124 A) of Indian Penal Code, and under sections of UAPA, Arms Act and those of the IT Act, at PS Rangar Nangal, District Gurdaspur.
As per the case, an FIR was initially registered on the statement of one Sartaj, son of Kunj Lal, who was working as a salesman in a liquor store. He said that he was sleeping in the liquor shop Dhariawal (Adda Pandoi) on May 30, 2018, when some people set the shop on fire by sprinkling petrol. He came out of the room and saved his life. The unidentified assailants fled from the spot.
Advocate Arnav Sood, counsel for petitioners, said that his clients were arrested on the basis of a tip-off that the petitioners had some links with an illegal organization that was helping them in carrying out various illegal and unlawful activities.
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The police later claimed to have recovered .32 bore revolver along with three live cartridges, 110 posters of Sikhs for Justice, three forms of Khalistan Zindabad, 1 board containing Punjab Referendum 2020, fiber-sheet, 5 sprays, two mobile phones and one box with brush from Dharminder, and a .22 bore pistol along with three cartridges from Kirpal.
Sood contended that the framing of charges against them had been challenged by the petitioners before a court and had been stayed on January 23, 2020.
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