Gurgaon court grants bail to cyber expert in Bhagwant Mann video row | Delhi News

Setting out the reasons for granting bail to Bhardwaj, the court noted that the trial would take time and no purpose would be served by keeping him incarcerated.

The judge noted that the primary accusation against the accused was that “being a technical sound person, 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 officials 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”.

Addressing the prosecution’s claim that one of the firms involved, Cipher Sentinel Lab, lacked a physical laboratory at its registered address, the court said, “Mere the fact that Cipher Sentinel Lab had no physical lab at the given address does not mean that it was a forged and fabricated firm”.

On the police’s decision to invoke organised crime charges against the accused, the court held that the applicability of such charges remains a matter of investigation rather than an established fact. It held, “At this stage, the investigating agency has failed to produce any documents collected during 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”.

Defence cited lack of evidence; state opposed relief

Appearing for the twenty-four-year-old accused, Advocate Dr Rajesh Sabhrawal 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.

The defense further submitted that charges for cheating, cheating by personation, forgery, and using as genuine a forged document or electronic record of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 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.

FIR allegations and investigation details

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 Punjab Chief Minister Bhawant 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 Ankit 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 accused remain in judicial custody.

The registration of the case in Gurgaon triggered political friction across Haryana and Punjab over the alleged attempt to manipulate digital evidence surrounding the Chief Minister’s video controversy.