Forest Scam: Punjab And Haryana High Court Grants Bail To IFS Officer Vishal Chauhan In Corruption Case

Chauhan was nominated in the FIR last year after the vigilance department busted the forest scam with the arrest of Guramanpreet Singh, divisional forest officer (DFO), Mohali, and forest department contractor Harmahinder Singh.

The bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara passed this order as it noted that further pre-trial incarceration of the accused is not justifiable.

“Only question before this Court is whether pre-trial incarceration which ranges from 4 to 7 months for the accused is sufficient or not. In the entirety of facts and circumstances of the case and given the nature of allegations, I am of the considered opinion that further pre-trial incarceration for the accused is not justifiable and it might be prejudicial to the accused,” the bench observed.

The case under the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against Chauhan after co-accused Harmohinder Singh, who was a contractor with the Forest Department, made a disclosure statement after his under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act.

In his statement, he said that between 2017 to 2022, he has been regularly paying bribes to the officers of the forest department, politicians and their aides and he had maintained a diary in this regard, which he had concealed in the basement of his residence.

Based on the disclosure statement, the accused got recovered the diary, in which the names of the persons to whom the bribe had been paid for the felling of khair trees were mentioned.

The accused further disclosed that during every season, he paid a bribe for taking a permit for cutting about 7000 khair trees and in this way, he had paid a bribe of Rs.70 lakhs every season.

In the status report filed by the concerned Dy.S.P., Vigilance Bureau, Unit, SAS Nagar, Mohali, it was mentioned that the diary revealed financial transactions between the said accused and the petitioners.

Chauhan and others were arrested last year and thereafter, they moved to the High Court seeking bail.

On Monday, having heard the counsels for the parties, the bench observed that at the bail stage, it was not supposed to analyze the absolute credibility of such a diary.

Furthermore, it also observed that the grant or refusal of bail is not a finding on acquittal or conviction. Hence, finding appropriate grounds to grant them bail, the Court extended the relief of regular bail to the accused [Praveen Kumar, Vishal Chauhan, and Guramanpreet Singh].

Appearances

Sr. Advocate APS Deol with Advocates Vishal R. Lamba & Himmat Singh Deol [for the petitioner(s) in CRM-M-39402 & 52056-2022.]

Sr. Advocate Bipan Ghai with Advocates Nikhil Ghai, Prabhdeep Bindra, Malini Singh,& Rishabh Singla [for the petitioner(s) in CRM-M-39397 & 48332-2022.]

Addl.A.G., Punjab Gaurav Garg Dhuriwala assisted by DSP, Vigilance Bureau, Mohali Navdeep Singh [for the State of Punjab]

Sr. Advocate Kanwaljit Singh with Advocates Ajaivir Singh and K.S. Rupal [for the complainant in CRM-M-39397 & 39402-2022. ]

Case title - Praveen Kumar vs. State of Punjab and connected matters