DIG Bhullar case: Mohali court dismisses Vigilance Bureau’s production warrant plea

A Mohali court disposed of an application moved by Punjab Vigilance Bureau seeking production warrant of suspended DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar in a disproportionate assets case.

Besides being in judicial custody at Model Jail, Chandigarh, Bhullar was also shown formally arrested by the Vigilance Bureau in a DA case on October 31 at Model Jail, Chandigarh.

The court held the VB application “infructuos” with a liberty to move fresh application as and when required.

Since there is a requirement between two investigating agencies — the VB and the CBI — for custodial questioning of the accused, this could be resolved by allowing the Vigilance Bureau to investigate the accused once the police remand given by the Special Court, Chandigarh, is over, and when the accused is no longer required by the other investigating agency (CBI). As of now, the application is dismissed as infructuous, as the circumstances have changed since the filing of the present application,” the order read.

In the reply filed by the CBI, it stated that it had already obtained police custody of the accused Bhullar up to November 6.

The other ground was that the VB has taken contradictory stand as it claims to have arrested the accused during jail examination on October 31, although there was no permission to arrest. Subsequently, on November 1, the VB filed the present application seeking production warrant.

Significantly, CBI stated in court that the VB filed a parallel FIR on identical allegations in order to frustrate the ongoing CBI investigation.