‘No evidence of organised crime yet’: Cyber expert gets bail in Mann video row case

The Judge noted that the primary accusation against Bhardwaj was that “he prepared a false report to favour a political party” and that “the said act was done at the instance of some of the senior officers of the Punjab Government”. However, highlighting the alleged missing evidentiary link in the police probe, the court pointed out that the investigating agency “themselves admitted that the documents and electronic instruments have been sent to the Forensic Lab,” but the “report has yet not been received”.

Organised crime charges cannot be invoked without a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report, underlined the court. “At this stage, the investigating agency has failed to produce any documents collected during the investigation. Section 111 BNS (organised crime) cannot be invoked at this stage as there is no FSL report received on file.”

“Accordingly, keeping in view the totality of circumstances and period of incarceration already spent by the accused, the applicant/accused is admitted to bail on his furnishing bail bonds in the sum of 1,00,000/- with one surety in the like amount,” the court ordered. The Judge added that if the investigating agency receives a forensic report in its favour at a later stage, “it may approach this court for cancellation of bail”.

FIR allegations and investigation details

The registration of the case in Gurgaon had triggered political friction across Haryana and Punjab over the alleged attempt to manipulate digital evidence.

The matter stems from a case registered on June 23 following a complaint from Jaspreet Singh, a digital forensics worker from Sirsa, Haryana. Singh alleged that he was called to Hotel Crowne Plaza in Gurgaon on June 15, where senior Punjab government officials pressured him and forcibly handed him Rs 10 lakh to issue a favorable forensic report regarding the video controversy surrounding Mann.

Singh alleged that he was instructed to obtain two separate reports from two labs, leading to reports under the names of Cipher Sentinel Lab and Cyberyan Lab.

The city police arrested Bhardwaj and co-accused Arun Mahendru on June 23. A Special Investigation Team subsequently recovered laptops and mobile phones from Dehradun and Delhi, before arresting a third accused, Pankaj Yadav, on June 29. The other two accused are still in custody.

Defence cites lack of evidence, State opposes relief

Appearing for the accused, Advocate Dr Rajesh Sabhrawal this week contended that Bhardwaj was falsely implicated and kept in illegal custody prior to his formal arrest on June 23.

Defense counsel argued that the police invoked organised crime provisions without any baseline evidence, call details, or financial records showing connivance or involvement with an organised crime syndicate.

He further submitted that charges for cheating, cheating by personation, forgery, and using as genuine a forged document or electronic record of the BNS, along with the charge of tampering with computer source documents and cheating by personation using computer resource of the Information Technology Act, 2000, could not be sustained without a formal forensic laboratory evaluation.

Opposing the bail application, Public Prosecutor Jagbir Sehrawat argued that the allegations against the accused were serious and involved creating manipulated technical reports at the behest of officials to benefit a political party, making him ineligible for bail.