The burden of proof on the prosecution in establishing conspiracy and the admissibility of statements recorded under Section 67 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act were the central legal points established in the judgment.

JUDGMENT :

Joymalya Bagchi, J.

1. Appeals are directed against judgment and order dated 27.03.2015 and 30.03.2015 convicting Rabi Sekhar Pandey (appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 250 of 2015), Gopal Teli and Shyam Lal (appellants in Criminal Appeal No. 247 of 2015) for commission of offence punishable under Section 21(c) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and appellant Biswanath Adhikary @ Bishu (appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 238 of 2015) and Bapi Dey @ Buro (appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 237 of 2015) for commission of offence punishable under Section 21(c) read with Section 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and sentencing all of them to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 18 years each and to pay a fine of Rs.2 lakh each, in default, to suffer imprisonment for 12 months more.

2. Prosecution case as alleged against the appellants is to the effect that on 31.12.2008 at 4:00 p.m., Bibhas Mondal (P.W. 1) and Sankar Das Sinha (P.W. 8), Intelligence Officer attached to N.C.B., Kolkata received information and recorded that 36 kgs. of good quality of heroin would be transported in a vehicle which would reach Panagarh, Burdwan in the midnight at 31.12.2008 and thereafter, Gopalnagar, Bongaon in the early hours of 01.01.2009. Rabi Sekhar Pandey would board the vehicle at Panagarh and the contraband would be handed over to one Bishu who would pay the vehicle fare and commission to Rabi Sekhar Pandey. Pursuant to such information and after obtaining necessary movement order, N.C.B. officers proceeded to various places around Bongaon, North 24-Parnagas and Nadia district. A team of officers under the leadership of S.D. Sinha (P.W. 8) lay ambush at Gopalnagar near Kali Temple. At 6:00 a.m. on 01.01.2009, they noticed a truck bearing registration No. RG 27G 2106 coming from Chakdah side which stopped near Kali Temple. Two persons in a motor bike came from Bongaon side and stopped there. One person got down from the truck and started talking with the persons on the bike in a suspicious manner. At that moment, N.C.B. officers intercepted them. On interrogation, the persons disclosed their identities. Two independent witnesses, namely, Milan Das and Amit Pal were requested to join the search. In presence of the independent witnesses, N.C.B. officers searched the truck and from a hidden cavity found in the backside of the driver’s cabin 19 packets containing brown coloured powder like substance were recovered. The weighment of 18 packets was found as 2 kgs. each while 1 packet weighed 1 kg, that is, 37 kgs. in all. On testing the brown coloured substance by drug detention kit, it responded to heroin.

3. On interrogation, Gopal Teli disclosed he was the driver of the truck while Shyam Lal stated he was the owner. They had collected heroin from Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh and Bhilwara, Rajasthan to deliver the same to Biswanath Adhikary at Bongaon. Rabi Sekhar Pandey admitted he was entrusted to supply the consignment to Biswanath. Biswanath also admitted he came to the spot to collect heroin and Bapi was his assistant. On reasonable belief that the aforesaid persons were trafficking in heroin, the truck, motor cycle along with 37 kgs. of brown coloured substance suspected to be heroin were seized under a seizure list. Registration certificate of the truck was seized. Mobile phones of Rabi, Biswanath and Bapi were also seized. Biswanath handed over a sum of Rs. 1,40,000/- to the N.C.B. officers. The seized articles and the aforesaid individuals were taken to N.C.B. office. N.C.B. officers drew samples of 5 gms. in duplicate from each packet which were sent for chemical examination. Notices under section 67 of N.D.P.S. Act were issued to the aforesaid persons who admitted their guilt. On the basis of statement made by Rabi Sekhar Pandey that he had stored 10.5 kgs. of heroin at his residence at Panagarh, a follow up action was initiated and Girish Nandan Pandey (P.W. 7) recovered 9.225 kgs. heroin from the ten