A.M. Badar, J.

By this appeal, the appellant/accused is challenging the judgment and order dated 8th October 2012 passed by the learned Special Judge under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as the NDPS Act for the sake of brevity) for Greater Mumbai, in NDPS Special Case No.118 of 2009, thereby convicting the appellant/accused of offences punishable under Sections 21(c) read with 8(c) read with 28 read with 23 of the NDPS Act. The appellant/accused is sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 13 years. In addition, he is directed to pay fine of Rs.1 lakh and in default, to undergo further simple imprisonment for 6 months.

2. Facts in brief, leading to the prosecution and resultant conviction of the appellant/accused, can be summarized thus :

(a) In the night intervening 22nd March 2009 and 23rd March 2009, PW1 Sanjay Kumar, Intelligence Officer of Air Intelligence Unit of the Custom department was on duty at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Sahar, Mumbai (hereinafter referred to as "the Airport" for the sake of brevity. Appellant/ accused Okacha Mike, a Nigerian national was present at the Airport for flying from Mumbai to Accra by Flight No.ET 611 of Ethiopian Airlines which was to depart on 23rd March 2009. PW1 Sanjay Kumar, Intelligence Officer, noticed suspicious behaviour of the appellant/accused at the departure hall of Module 2C of the Airport. After the appellant/accused checked in at Customer Care Service Counter of the Ethiopian Airlines, PW1 Sanjay Kumar, Intelligence Officer, discreetly requested PW7 Mary Anastin, Customer Service Agent of the Ethiopian Airlines to keep aside the checked in bags of the appellant/accused. After the appellant/accused checked in and while he was proceeding for the security check, PW1 Sanjay Kumar, Intelligence Officer, intercepted the appellant/accused and took him to the Baggage Identification area of the Departure Hall of Module 2C of the Airport. In presence of panch witnesses PW8 Anil Mestry and Pradip Sawant, the appellant/accused identified his bags.

(b) The appellant/accused, in presence of panch witnesses, had produced following documents :

(i) Nigerian passport

(ii) Counterfoil of e-ticket with two receipts and two baggage claim tags bearing nos.0071 ET 733539 and 0071 ET 733540 bearing his name

(iii) Boarding pass of Flight No.ET 611 of Ethiopian Airlines for Seat No.22A for Addis Ababa in his name

(iv) Boarding pass of Flight No.947 of Ethiopian Airlines dated 23rd March 2009 from Addis Ababa to Accra in his name

(c) In presence of panch witnesses, the appellant/accused identified his two bags which were containing security straps. Those bags were of following description :

(i) Grey coloured hard top strolley suitcase of 'Presidency' make with baggage identification Bag No.0071 ET 733539

(ii) Soft black coloured strolley bag of 'Travel M' make with baggage identification Bag No.0071 ET 733 540

(iii) Bag identification tags on both these bags were bearing name of the appellant/accused and those bags were tallying the baggage name tags found in possession of the appellant/accused

(d) The appellant/accused, upon being asked, declined that he was carrying any narcotics or other objectionable substance in the bags. However, the sniffer dog gave positive indication. Therefore, the appellant/accused was asked to open the bags in presence of the panch witnesses. Accordingly, he opened the grey coloured hard top strolley suitcase by removing security strap. Except clothes, the bags were found to be containing nothing. However, as the grey coloured hard top strolley suitcase was found unusually heavy, PW1 Sanjay Kumar, Intelligence Officer, suspected some concealment in the bottom of the said suit case. The appellant/accused repacked his bag and with his bags, the appellant/accused was escorted to the office of the Air Intelligence Unit. At the office of the Air Intelligence Unit, which was situated at 2C departure of the A