Court grants bail to ex-MLA Balraj Kundu, raps cops

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 28

Rapping the police for not displaying “expected objectivity” while dealing with a civil dispute apparently converted into criminal litigation, a Gurugram court has granted anticipatory bail to ex-MLA Balraj Kundu and two others.

The court said the matter appeared to be a case of police “highhandedness” and the sequence of events did not present “happy countenance”.

The order’s copy was directed to be sent to the Home Secretary for information and necessary action. The matter has its genesis in a contract between the complainant and petitioners for a road project.

Taking up the matter, Gurugram District and Sessions Judge MM Dhonchak asserted that if there was an agreement between the complainant and petitioners, which was not honoured by the petitioners, it would not lead to commission of offence of cheating or breach of trust.

Dhonchak asserted that the court had no hesitation in, prima facie, reaching the conclusion that there was a design on the complainant’s part to turn civil litigation into criminal litigation to exert pressure upon the petitioners.

Dhonchak observed that the court was not oblivious of its limitations while deciding an application for bail, but was of the considered opinion that calling a spade a spade was the first and foremost pious duty of a judge.