NRI gets bail; passport confiscated
US-based NRI Sukhjit Singh Chahal alias Sukhi Chahal was granted bail by the additional sessions court on Thursday.
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Told to furnish Rs 1 lakh personal bond with two sureties,cannot leave country without courts permission
US-based NRI Sukhjit Singh Chahal alias Sukhi Chahal was granted bail by the additional sessions court on Thursday. Sukhi Chahals counsel Harpreet Singh Sandhu informed,The police have confiscated the passport of Chahal to ensure that he does not leave the country. He has been asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh with two sureties and cannot leave the country without the permission of the court. The court has also directed Chahal to be present in person at each hearing.
Sukhi Chahal,a student of Guru Nanak Engineering College,was an active member of students politics way back in 1992 when militancy in Punjab was at its peak. At that time Chahal had been booked by the police. He,however,left India and settled in the US where he runs an NGO called Punjab Foundation.
Meanwhile,as per police records,it is alleged that at about 11 am on February 17,1992,senior Congress leader Malkiat Singh Birmi received a threatening phone call that he should bring Rs 10 lakh the next day and that this ransom should be paid near Malhar cinema hall. The complainant alleged that Birmi was told that in case he failed to do so,he would be killed or a bomb would be exploded in his house.
The caller had identified himself as Amrik Singh Bholi,a member of the Babar Khalsa. The complainant then approached the police who set up a plane where six bundles of news paper cuttings were put in a card board box with a 10 rupee currency note bearing a specific number.
HC Gurmit Singh was to hand over the card board box to the concerned persons. A constable had been put as a shadow witness. The person who came to collect the money was arrested by the police and identified as Sukhi Chahal. Sukhi Chahal was booked under Sections 386 and 387 of the IPC.
During the trial,Sukhi jumped bail. He was re-arrested in January 2012.
The court accepted bail after the complainant in this case,senior Congress leader Malkiat Singh Birmi,submitted an affidavit in the court on February 7,stating that he had no objection in case Sukhi was given bail.
UPDATE: By an Order passed on 21 May 2012 in Crl.Misc.No.M-9183/2021, the High Court of Punjab & Haryana had quashed FIR No.32 dated 18.02.1992 under Ss 386, 387 IPC as the parties had arrived at “an amicable and genuine compromise” and allowed the petition.
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