Prosecution must adhere to strict evidential procedures in NDPS Act cases; failure undermines the conviction. In this case, inconsistencies in evidence and chain of custody led to acquittal.

JUDGMENT :

Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi, J.

1. The present appeal has been preferred by the appellant under Section 374 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 26.12.2022 passed by First Additional Sessions Judge/ Special Judge, NDPS Act, South Bastar – Dantewada (C.G.) in Special Criminal Case (NDPS Act) No. 33/2019, whereby appellant has been convicted under Section 20(b)(ii)(C) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (henceforth, 'NDPS Act') and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years withfine of Rs.1,00,000/-, in default of payment of fine, to undergo additional rigorous imprisonment for 500 days.

2. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 21.06.2019, Station House Officer – Praveen Minj (PW-8) of Pushpal Police Station received information from an informant that a Truck bearing registration No. M.P. 09 H.G. 5134 is transporting contraband substance ganja from Padamgiri, Odisha to Sukuma unauthorizedly for sale. The said secret information was recorded in rojnamcha sanha. The intimation about secret information was sent to Senior Officers. Two independent witnesses were called. Necessary Rojnamcha Sanhas and Mukbir suchna panchnama were prepared. Above information was sent to Sub Divisional Officer (P), Tongpal. Subsequently, police party proceeded towards the place of occurrence and cordoned off at village Gumma, Main Road, under Police Station Pushpal. After reaching there, aforesaid Truck was stopped and the person, who was occupant of the said Truck, has informed his name as Ashish Kumar Pandey. Notice under Section 50 of NDPS Act was served to the appellant/accused. Necessary Panchnamas were prepared. After preparing necessary Panchnamas, they searched the aforesaid vehicle and found contraband substance ganja kept in 28 plastic bags/packets in separately built box in the carrier of the truck, which was recovered vide Ex.P-8. The said contraband substance was identified as Ganja by tasting, to which identification Panchnama (Ex.P-9) was prepared. After weighing the 28 plastic bags/packets of Ganja, the total weight was found to be 1215.295 kilograms. Thereafter, search of accused/appellant was started, in which, one mobile phone and Rs.4,050/- cash were found. The recovered ganja was homogenized, 2-2 samples of 50-50 gm from each packets, total 56 samples were prepared vide Samras Panchnama (Ex-P/13) and sample panchnama (Ex-P/14), aforesaid truck, documents in respect of the said truck, one mobile, Rs.4050 and contraband substance were seized from the appellant vide seizure memo Ex-P/15. Thereafter, notice under Section 67 of NDPS Act was given to the appellant, but he failed to produce any valid document for its transportation. Necessary Panchnamas were prepared and at the place of occurrence, unnumbered Dahati Nalishi (Ex.P-29) was registered under Section 20 (b) of the NDPS Act. Based on which, FIR (Ex-P/30) was registered against the appellant. Seized/recovered contraband substance and articles were deposited in Malkhana of the concerned police station and receipt thereof was obtained. Statement of the witnesses were recorded. Spot map were prepared by the Police vide Ex.P-26. Samples marked as Ex. 01-1 to 28-1 of seized contraband was sent to FSL, Raipur, to which vide its report Ex. 33-A, the FSL reported that samples Ex. 01-1 to P-28-1 is Ganja. Physical verification of aforesaid contraband