CRM-M No.23703 of 2026 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH 231 CRM-M No.23703 of 2026 Date of decision: 15.07.2026 Pooja @ Khushi ... Petitioner Vs. State of Haryana ... Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE MANISHA BATRA Present:- Mr. Munish Kamboj, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Neeraj Poswal, AAG, Haryana, for the respondent-State. ---- MANISHA BATRA, J. (Oral) 1. The present petition has been filed by the petitioner under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short ‘BNSS’) seeking regular bail in the FIR mentioned below:- FIR No. Dated Police Station Sections 573 29.11.2025 Sirsa City, District Sirsa 111(3), 115, 127(2), 140(3), 308(2) and 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (For short “BNS”) (61 of BNS added later on) MANJU 2026.07.15 17:43 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this order /judgment Chandigarh CRM-M No.23703 of 2026 -2- 2. The facts and allegations are being taken from the reply/status report filed by the State, which reads as follows:- “2. That brief facts of the case are that case FIR No.573 dated 29.11.2025, under sections 111(3)/115/127(2)/140(3)/351(2)/308(2) BNS (sections 61(2) BNS was added during the investigation), Police Station City Sirsa, District Sirsa/Annexure P-1 was registered on the complaint of complainant Jaswant Singh son of Hardutt Singh, resident of Chilkani Dhabh, Ellenabad, against (1) Suresh son of Ganga Ram, (2) Dalbir Singh son of Surjeet Singh, (3) Shiv Kumar son of Balwant Singh, (4) Raj Kumar son of Sharwan Singh, (5) Rajesh Kumar son of Kuldeep, (6) Manoj Kumar son of Raghuveer, (7) petitioner/accused Pooja @ Khusi wife of Vikash and (8) Suman daughter of Sultan Singh by name. English translation of extract of FIR is as under: Stated that I am a resident of the abovesaid address. I am 7th pass. About a week ago, on my phone make Vivo 1916 in which phone No.94161-16911 is working, on which a friend request with the name "Khushi Khushi" came on my Gmail ID "jjaswantsingh921@gmail.com" which is linked to Facebook ID "jaswantsinghdehru". I accepted it. Then two days later I got a waving hand emoji on messenger. Then I wrote Hello. After that the person on the other side said who is he? I asked who are you. The answer was got, I am Khushi. I wrote that I am Jaswant Singh, then we kept talking. The next day I received a direct call on my phone No.94161-16911 from phone No.97288-25926 on which a girl spoke who first said "Ram-Ram" and then said that I am Khushi. We both talked for about 2 minutes. The entire conversation is recorded in my phone. Khushi called me today and said that you should come to my house in Fatehabad, we will meet and talk there. I and my friend namely Subhash Chander son of Bhagi Ram, resident of Chilkani Dhabh, left for Fatehabad at around 10:00 AM MANJU 2026.07.15 17:43 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this order /judgment Chandigarh CRM-M No.23703 of 2026 -3- in car No. HR-44-P-1980, make Toyota HYRYDER. Subhash Chander was driving the car. We met three girls near Fatehabad Papiha Park. One girl told her name as Khushi and I did not ask the names of the other two. Three of them got into our car, and Khushi said, Let's go to my aunt's house in Bhirdana, and we'll talk there. Then, the five of us went to Dhani of Sultan Beniwal's in village Bhirdana. We found an old woman there. My friend Subhash Chander, Khushi and her two friends sat down in a room. Subhash Chander left the room to urinate. Someone locked the gate from outside. Two boys came from outside and started beating me. Then two more boys came and gave beatings to me. Then they told me, you're doing wrong to our wife. Either settle the matter, we'll hand you over to the police or pay Rs.20 lakh. I said, take me to the police and if I'm wrong, I'll be punished. We said, "I don't have Rs.20 lakh. Finally, we settled for 3 lakh rupees. They took both of our phones. Subhash Chander arranged the money using his Phone. He called his uncle's son namely Ajay on speaker phone. Subhash said, bring Rs.1,50,000/-. Ajay replied, I have Rs.90,000/- and I'll bring it. One of the boys namely Deepak, told him to bring the money to Sawera Hotel, near the bus stand in Sirsa. They held us hostage for about five hours. Subhash Chander called Ajay to Sirsa with the money. They kept us talking to Ajay through Subhash Chander's phone. We were taken from Dhani to our car, where two boys, Suresh and Dalbir, sat with us. Behind us, a white Scorpio and another car, an S-Cross, drove off. Two boys were in the S-Cross and two boys and two girls alongwith a girl, were in the Scorpio. One of the girl had gone somewhere from the Dhani. I couldn't see the vehicle number. These people brought us to Sirsa to demand more money. Subhash Chander had his relative Vinod Kumar transfer Rs.50,000/- to his phone through Google Pay and Subhash Chander also transferred Rs.50,000/- to mobile No.97297-55977 of Sunil Kumar. I said, come to Gol Diggi, my money is coming too. MANJU 2026.07.15 17:43 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this order /judgment Chandigarh CRM-M No.23703 of 2026 -4- We all went to Gol Diggi. From there, we went to the grain market to get money from a trader so we could give it to them and get rid of them. We couldn't reach a deal there. I spoke to my uncle namely Bhim Sen and told him, uncle, I need Rs.1,50,000/-. If you don't give it, these people will kill me. My uncle called the police, who arrived shortly after, they apprehended them, alongwith the vehicles, near Jagdev Singh Chowk, Sirsa, and rescued us. A girl named Khushi called me to Fatehabad and held me hostage for about 8-10 hours, threatening to kill me and Implicate me in a false case and beat me up. They extorted Rs.1,50,000/- from Subhash Chander of which Rs.90,000/- was in cash and Rs.50,000/- through Google Pay and forced me to pay Rs.1,50,000/-. The aforementioned persons kidnapped me and brought me to Sirsa as a hostage. A demand for Rs.20 lakh was made from me and after much pressure, I was persuaded to pay Rs.1,50,000/- to save my life. Khushi, her two friends, an old woman in their village, who said they had been insulted and six boys, of whom I know the names of Dalbir and Suresh, but I don't know the names of the others, are an organized gang that extorts money from people by threatening and blackmailing them in the name of a girl. Legal action should be taken against them. I can identify the girl and an old woman who are not present at the spot if they come forward. Legal action should be taken against all the above said persons". Sd/-Jaswant Singh.” 3. It is argued by learned counsel for the petitioner that she has been falsely implicated in this case. She is in custody since long. No specific overt act has been attributed to her. She was not part of the honeytrapping syndicate formed by the other accused. She had never made any request through her Facebook ID to the complainant. Infact, the accused Dalbir Singh was the mastermind of the crime. No calls have MANJU 2026.07.15 17:43 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this order /judgment Chandigarh CRM-M No.23703 of 2026 -5- been made to the complainant from her cell phone number. The trial will take considerable time to conclude. Her further incarceration would not serve any useful purpose. It is, therefore, argued that she deserves to be released on bail. 4. Per contra, learned State counsel has argued that there are serious and specific allegations against the petitioner who had hatched a conspiracy with the co-accused and in pursuance of that conspiracy, she along with the co-accused Suman and Simran had gone at Papiha Chowk on 28.11.2025 and had brought the victims to the house of co-accused Suman and was kept confined, subjected to harassment and money was extorted. They also extracted an amount of Rs.1.5 lakhs from Subhash Chander. The case is at its nascent stage. The material witnesses are yet to be examined. Her antecedents are not clean. There are chances of petitioner’s threatening and intimidating the witnesses or committing similar offences, if extended benefit of bail. It is, thus, stressed that the petition does not deserve to be allowed. 5. This Court has considered the rival submissions. 6. The petitioner along with the co-accused had hatched a conspiracy to extract money from innocent youths by entangling them through Facebook App and in pursuance of that conspiracy and on asking of co-accused Dalbir Singh, the petitioner had a conversation with the victim on 27.11.2025 through Facebook messanger app. In pursuance of MANJU 2026.07.15 17:43 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this order /judgment Chandigarh CRM-M No.23703 of 2026 -6- that conspiracy, the petitioner along with the co-accused Simran and Suman had reached at Papiha Chowk and had brought the victim Jaswant Singh and his friend to the house of co-accused Suman. As per the further allegations, it was in the house of the co-accused Suman that the victims had been kept confined, videos of complainant had been taken and demand an amount of Rs.20 lakhs was made by way of ransom money. Her active participation in the commission of subject offences stands prima facie established. The allegations against her are quite serious in nature. Even her antecedents are not clean since as per the status report, she had been involved in one more case of similar nature. As such, the contention that there are chances of her committing similar offences cannot be considered to be unfounded at this stage. It is well settled proposition of law that grant of bail is a discretionary relief to be granted or denied based on specific facts and circumstances of each case and there cannot be any exhaustive parameter set out for considering the application for grant of bail. The factors such as nature of accusations, severity of punishment if the accusations entail, conviction and nature of evidence in support of the accusations are to be seen. That apart reasonable apprehension of tampering with evidence or threatening the material witnesses is also to be weighed. Frivolity of prosecution should also be considered and it is only the element of genuineness that has to be considered in the matter of grant of bail. However, keeping in view the MANJU 2026.07.15 17:43 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this order /judgment Chandigarh CRM-M No.23703 of 2026 -7- foregoing legal principles and the circumstances as discussed above, this Court finds no compelling ground to allow the petition at this stage. Accordingly, the same is dismissed. 7. It is, however, clarified that observations made hereinabove shall not be construed as an expression of opinion on the merits of the case. (MANISHA BATRA) 15.07.2026 JUDGE manju Whether speaking/reasoned Yes/No Whether reportable Yes/No MANJU 2026.07.15 17:43 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this order /judgment Chandigarh