Gurdas Maan moves HC after additional sessions judge dismissed anticipatory bail plea

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 13

Less than a week after an Additional Sessions Judge dismissed Gurdas Maan’s anticipatory bail plea in a case registered against him on August 26 for hurting religious feelings of the Sikh community, the Punjabi singer on Monday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Among other things, Maan contended the “Sessions Judge was apparently influenced by the show of public outcry, generated by some sections through a sustained campaign”. His counsel Arshdeep Singh Cheema and Tarannum Cheema in the petition added that the settled principles regulating the question of bail were overlooked in an atmosphere projected as surcharged. The statutory parameters and the settled norms through precedents were relegated to the background. “The Judge did not even pause to consider as to whether the investigating agency had asked for custodial interrogation and further made a valid case for the same.”

It was added that the petitioner had deep roots in the society and nothing in his previous conduct during the inquiry would show that he was likely to abscond.

Moreover, the alleged objectionable material was already in public domain and nothing was required to be recovered from the petitioner warranting his custodial interrogation.

“Moreover, as a humble Sikh and a sensitive citizen, the petitioner made a widely circulated public apology…. His words ought to be interpreted in the total background of his lifelong devotion to venerable Sikh Gurus and to the principles of Sikhism,” it was added.