New twist to Mani Majra SHO bribery case

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

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Chandigarh, May 9

In a new twist to a bribery case registered against Jaswinder Kaur, former Mani Majra SHO, constable Sarbjit Singh has filed an application before the CBI Court for the withdrawal of his alleged statement recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) dated July 3, 2020, by the Special Magistrate, CBI, Chandigarh.

Sarabjit is also one of the five accused against whom charges were framed by the CBI Court in the case. He was posted at the Mani Majra police station. After hearing the arguments of the counsel for Sarbjit Singh and Special Public Prosecutor PK Dogra, Special Judge of CBI Court Jagjit Singh took the retraction by the accused on record .While disposing of his application, the CBI Court said the accused at the very initial stage wanted to retract from his statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC, and although there was no provision whereby his such retraction of the statement would become infructuous, the probative value of such statement would be looked into at the stage of evidence.

“The Magistrate, who recorded the statement, would be examined by the prosecution and what value and what inference is to be drawn can be looked into during the stage of trial, and therefore, retraction by the accused is taken on record and will be considered accordingly during the trial, and the application filed stands disposed of,” says the court in the order.

Earlier, Dogra opposed the application and submitted that the accused had voluntarily got recorded his statement before the Magistrate without any pressure or threat and there was no provision in CrPC for the withdrawal of such statement. On the other hand, the counsel for Sarbjit claimed that the statement of the accused was recorded under threat, and he was compelled to make the statement, and therefore, he withdrew from the statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC by the Special Magistrate, CBI, Chandigarh.

According to the CBI, Sarbjit, in his statement, had allegedly stated that the signatures of Gurdeep Singh, complainant, in the case were taken on a blank paper and later on, a compromise dated June 21, 2020, was scribed on that blank paper as per the dictates of Jaswinder Kaur. Jaswinder was consistently claiming that she was falsely implicated in the case and the money which the CBI was claiming to be the bribe was actually the money as part the compromise which the complainant agreed to return as per the compromise submitted before the police station.

She claimed the complaint against her was moved five days after reaching the compromise in which it was alleged that Rs 5 lakh was to be given to her. As per the FIR, a criminal complaint was pending against Gurdeep for allegedly duping Randhir Singh of Rs 28 lakh, at the Mani Majra police station. Gurdeep alleged in his complaint to the CBI that Jaswinder, through Bhagwan Singh, demanded Rs 5 lakh as bribe from him for not pursuing the matter against him. Later, when he paid Rs 2 lakh to Bhagwan Singh, a written “compromise” in Punjabi language was reached between Gurdeep and Randhir.

The CBI had arrested Bhagwan Singh while taking Rs 1 lakh allegedly on behalf of Jaswinder Kaur.