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Punjab Police clears judge accused of stealing jewellery from deceased judge's house

A court in Patiala had earlier this month declined to grant anticipatory bail to the judicial officer.

Sofi Ahsan

Punjab Police has filed a cancellation report before a Patiala district court in a case accusing Civil Judge (Junior Division) Bikramdeep Singh of committing theft at the residence of another judge last year.

In the case registered at Lahori Gate Police Station in Patiala on March 21, Bikramdeep Singh and others had been accused of allegedly stealing gold and jewellery last year from the residence of Additional District & Sessions Judge Kanwaljit Singh on the night he died at a hospital.

A court in Patiala earlier this month denied anticipatory bail to judge Bikramdeep Singh. However, the police has now decided to close the matter.

SHO at Lahori Gate Police Station Inspector Randeep Singh told the Bar & Bench that a cancellation report in the matter was filed on Monday.

"The complainant gave a supplementary statement that the matter has been sorted out. He said no theft took place and stolen articles were recovered from the house only," Singh said.

Advocate Anish Jain, who represented Bikramdeep Singh before the trial court last month, also confirmed the development.

"A cancellation report has been filed yesterday," Jain told the Bar & Bench.

The cancellation report was placed before Judicial Magistrate Ist Class Prabha Prashar on Monday and is now listed for consideration on Friday.

The police had registered the criminal case on the complaint of Dr. Bhupinder Singh Virk, who was given power of attorney by the deceased judge's son. Virk is a a professor in the Department of Law at Punjabi University Patiala.

In the complaint, Virk had said that after his friend Kanwaljit Singh passed away at Amar Hospital on August 1, 2025, his house help Amarjit Kaur alias Pinky, one Gaurav Goel, a government officer and " an unknown person" came in three cars to the deceased judge's residence.

"Out of these four people, Gaurav stayed outside, and the remaining three went inside the house and started rummaging through the house of my friend Late Kanwaljit Singh, Additional District Judge, Sangrur. At that time, these three people, after searching my friend's house, took away ancestral gold, jewellery, and cash from the house," the complaint alleged.

Bikramdeep Singh had denied the allegations, stating that he had been asked by Kanwaljit Singh's son Angadpal Singh, who was then in Canada, to secure the valuables immediately. Bikramdeep also claimed that he later returned the valuables when Angadpal Singh stayed at his residence.

On April 1, his counsel in the bail plea argued that the case was registered only to tarnish his image. No formal receipt of handing over of the belongings was taken since they shared family relations, it was submitted.

"There was no question of any criminal trespass since the petitioner/bail applicant shared friendly, family relations with the deceased who had been treating the petitioner as a family member from their posting together at district Ludhiana," the counsel argued

However, the prosecution had argued that articles were taken away much before Bikramdeep contacted the sons of the deceased. It was also submitted that recovery of the case property was yet to be made and that custodial interrogation would be required to unearth the conspiracy and to trace the property.

Additional Sessions Judge Harinder Sidhu on April 1 denied bail to Bikramdeep on the ground that the allegations are of a serious nature, involving removal of a substantial quantity of gold and jewellery from the residence of a deceased colleague under suspicious circumstances.

However, the matter is likely to be closed now with the filing of the cancellation report.

Sources told the Bar & Bench that Bikramdeep Singh has remained on leave since the registration of the police case. The district court website shows him on earned leave till April 24.

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