The main legal point established is the inadmissibility of retracted statements under Section 67 of NDPS Act and the need for corroboration of evidence in drug-related cases.

JUDGMENT

Suresh Kumar Kait, J. - In case SC No. SC/1334/2020, titled as NCB Vs. Gaurav Aggarwal & Ors, petitioner is facing trial for the offences under Sections 8/22 & 29 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. Petitioner was arrested by the officials of Narcotic Control Bureau ("NCB") on 11.01.2020 and is in judicial custody since 11.01.2020. Vide present petition, petitioner is seeking bail while claiming to be innocent and of having been falsely implicated in the present case.

2. The present petition has been filed on the ground that petitioner is a law abiding citizen and is running business in the name of Madhav Pharma for sale, purchase and transport of various medicines while holding valid drug license under Form 20B & 21B of Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1945. Petitioner has pleaded that he has maintained all records complying with all the terms and conditions of the license. Petitioner has further pleaded that no contraband was recovered from his possession and he has been falsely implicated in this case.

3. The crux of the prosecution case, as per complaint dated 09.01.2020, is that upon receipt of secret information by Chetan Sharma, Intelligence Officer (IO) that one parcel bearing Airway Bill No. D90471207, booked by one Gaurav Kumar from Agra for delivery to one Manoj Kumar, at Ludhiana, Punjab is lying at DTDC, Khasra No. 16/06, Smalakha, Kapasehra, New Delhi is suspected of containing NRX tablets and if captured, huge quantity of narcotic tablets can be recovered. This information was reduced into writing and was placed before Amit Kumar Tiwary, Superintendent, who directed Manoj Kumar, Junior Intelligence Officer, to constitute a team and take further action as per law. Thereafter, Manoj Kumar, Junior Intelligence Officer along with other members of the constituted raiding team, namely, Raj Kumar Maurya, Intelligence Officer, Ajay Kumar, Speoy and N.P. Singh, Driver, collected the DD kit, weighing machine I.O. kit and other related seizing material and seal of Narcotic Control Bureau DZU-2. The team left the Delhi office and reached at above mentioned address and met Durgesh Prasad, Vigilance Senior Executive of DTDC. After introducing themselves by showing their identify cards, informed about their purpose of coming and requested him and his colleague, one Aas Mohd. Khan, to become independent witnesses for the search and seizure proceedings, to which they accepted. Manoj Kumar, Junior Intelligence Officer, offered these independent witnesses to search him and his team members, to which they declined. Thereafter, the suspected article was opened in the presence of these two independent witnesses. On opening the said parcel, it was found to be jute bag, on which and on the bill, the name of the consignor was written as Gaurav Kumar, Agra (U.P.) and consignee was written as Manoj Kumar, Campa Cola Chowk, Ludhiana-141003.

4. When the said jute bag was opened, a brown card box was found which contained 50,000 tablets of Tramadol weighing 20 kg. Since these were being sent as mis-declared item without bill and were in contravention of the NDPS Act, therefore, seizure proceedings were initiated after due procedure. A notice under Section 67 of NDPS was issued to independent witnesses-Durgesh Prasad and Aas Mohd. Khan. Thereafter, Manoj Kumar, Intelligence Officer, collected relevant information about Gaurav Kumar of Agra and Manoj Kumar of Ludhiana from DTDC office and as mentioned on Airway Bill and prepared disclosure to this effect. The disclosure statement of Manoj Kumar Yadav, Intelligence Officer was placed before Amit Kumar Tiwary, Superintendent, who directed Sh. Sachin Kumar, Intelligence Officer to take action against Gaurav Kumar of Agra and Manoj Kumar of Ludhiana as per law.

5. On the next day, i.e. 10.01.2020, after making relevant entries in the test memo form, the samples seized from the office of DTDC on 09.01.2020 were sent to Chemical Engineer, CRCL Pusa Road, New Delhi through Sh. Yogesh K