Acquittal of the accused under the NDPS Act is upheld as the trial court's judgment was not flawed and adhered to evidentiary standards.

JUDGMENT :

G.BASAVARAJA, J.

The appellant/State has preferred this appeal against the judgment of acquittal passed by the Prl. Sessions Judge, Tumkur in Special Case No.53/2005 dated 08.09.2010.

2. For the sake of convenience, the parties herein are referred to as per their status before the trial Court.

3. Brief facts leading to this appeal are that PW12-A. Caleb Arumairaj, Intelligence Officer, Narcotics Control Bureau, Chennai has lodged a complaint before the Court on 20.06.2005 against the accused to take cognizance of the offences under Sections 8 (c) read with Sections 21 (c), 25, 27-A, 28 and 29 of the N.D.P.S Act, 1985 as amended in 2001.

4. It is alleged by the prosecution that Thirumalai Sridhar (PW1), Intelligence Officer, Narcotic Control Bureau, South Zonal Unit, Chennai (NCB for short) received a credible information over a phone call on 23.12.2004 at 09.30 a.m. that one Indiran @ Jeeva, Srilankan, residing at Trichy, who was acquitted in 15.5 kgs of Heroin case of NCB, Chennai, and one Mahalingam, resident of Vizunthamavadi, were arranged to procure 23 kgs of Heroin from accused No.6-Dhilawar Khan @ Sheriff Bhai Pathan (split up accused), which was being sent through the Lorry, bearing No.MP.14/JA-0136, to Bangalore, which had to be collected by accused No.1-Saravanan, a relative of Accused No.4-Mahalingam, and had to be brought to Nagapatnam coast by Accused No.4-Mahalingam and Accused No.5- Indiran @ Jeeva (split up accused). Accused No.2-Vijay Singh had been sent to Bangalore by accused No.6-Dilwar Khan @ Sheriff Bhai for co-ordination and to collect 23 kgs of Heroin from the lorry by accused No.1-Saravanan for onward movement and delivery spot had been fixed as NH4, Joss Toll Road Plaza 2, Chokkanahalli, Tumkur, on the intervening night of 23^rd /24^th December, 2004.

5. Thereafter, PW1-Tirumalai, Sridhar sent the information report under Section 42 of NDPS Act, to PW5- S.Gunabalan Superintendent. The said Gunabalan- Superintendent called for the conference. PW1-Tirumalai Sridhar along with other Intelligence Officers viz., PW2-C. Radhakrishna Pillai, PW3-A Senthil Murugan, CW2 Aruldas, started their journey from Chennai in a government vehicle and reached the spot at 22.45 hours on the same night. PW5-S. Gunabalan also called another Intelligence Officer, who were at Bangalore for other work, also joined the team. They procured two independent panchas namely PW7-G. Lingaiah and PW8- Rangaraju and informed the said panchas about the information. They all kept a careful watch and surveillance at NH-4, Joss Toll Road Plaza 2, Chokkanahalli, Tumkur at 02.15 hours on the following day, they saw a lorry bearing registration No.MP14/J-0136 and stopped it. At that time, they saw two persons- one was tall, lean, black and other was short and bellied. They approached the lorry. The bellied person was chatting with the person, who was sitting on the driver's seat. After that, occupants of the said lorry handed over a sandalwood colour Rexine bag containing volumetrically a heavy thing, to the bellied person and he took over that thing on his shoulder and handed over the same to the tall, lean, black person. They all surrounded, the vehicle along with two persons standing outside and enquired about the names of the said two persons. They are accused No.1-Saravanan and accused No.2- Vijay Singh. The team of officers, superintendent and independent panchas offered themselves to accused Nos. 1 and 2 and the driver and cleaner of the lorry. But all the four persons declined. Then PW1 explained to them that they were not in a position to take