Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to former Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Bibi Jagir Kaur who is facing murder charges in the mysterious death of her daughter Harpreet Kaur, on a petition by CBI challenging Punjab and Haryana High Court order granting her anticipatory bail.
A division bench comprising Justice D P Mohapatra and Justice Shivaraj V Patil also issued notice to Kaur on the petition of Kamaljit Singh, who claimed to be the husband of Harpreet, challenging the grant of anticipatory bail to her.

Seeking cancellation of the anticipatory bail, the CBI in its application said That the pre-arrest bail ought not to have been granted by the high court to Kaur, who has (been) absconding and evading her arrest and causing damage to the material evidence. The court directed Kaur to file reply to the petitions by January 2, when the case would come up for further hearing.

Appearing for CBI, solicitor general Harish Salve said, “The high court exceeded the settled position of law which prohibits grant of anticipatory bail to an accused facing murder charges as through this he could evade custodial interrogation.”

“Stressing that CBI was deprived of interrogating Kaur in custody, which was more elicitous,” Salve said the other accused may get benefit of this as the mandatory 90-day period for filing the chargesheet is getting over on January 3 and the investigating agency was at odds to file the same without arresting Kaur.

Harpreet Kaur had died on the night of April 20/21 last and CBI alleged that her body was cremated in a hurry. The high court, acting on a PIL, had directed CBI on June 9 to investigate into the mysterious death of Harpreet. Bureau Report