JUDGMENT

D.M. Patnaik, J. - On information that the appellant was allegedly trafficking in brown sugar, the police raiding party nabbed him in his residence situate in Dhannkuti Sahi in Puri town on 9.4.1990 around 10 a.m. and recovered from his' pant pocket ten grams of heroin in a paper packet.

2. On trial he was convicted under Sec. 21 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (for short, the 'Act') and sentenced him to undergo R.I. for ten years with a fine of rupees one lakh which he assails in this appeal. The appellant denied the indictment.

3. Mr. Deepak Mishra, the learned counsel for the appellant did not challenge the recovery of that particular quantity of brown sugar and that too rightly, since though the two independent witnesses did not support the prosecution case, this Court after going through the evidence of the rest of the witnesses who were police personnel is satisfied that there is no infirmity in their evidence to disbelieve the fact of recovery. The chemical report containing the substance to be brown sugar also goes unchallenged. His main argument was that the entire trial was vitiated for non-compliance of the statutory provisions under Sees.