The court held that confession statements under the NDPS Act require corroborative evidence, and prolonged pre-trial detention with no contraband recovery justifies granting bail.

JUDGMENT :

VIKAS MAHAJAN, J.

1. The present petition has been filed seeking regular bail in connection with FIR No. NCB Crime No. VIII/19/DZU/2022 registered at Police Station Narcotics Control Bureau [in short “NCB] under Sections 8 /22 (c)/23(c)/29 of NDPS Act, 1985.

2. As per the prosecution version, an information was received by Junior Intelligence Officer [in short “JIO”] of NCB/respondent, Sunil Kumar, whereby it was stated that the parcel bearing AWB No. 7702909491 is lying at DHL Express Pvt. Ltd. Rama Road, Kirti Nagar, New Delhi and was suspected to contain psychotropic substance and in relation thereto the said officer informed the Superintendent, Sh. Amit Kumar Tiwary who directed another officer Anoop Kumar (HO) to take necessary action.

3. In pursuance of the above said directions, a team was constituted and on the same day at around 3pm the team departed from NCB office and reached DHL office at around 3:40 pm. Thereafter, at DHL Express office the team disclosed the information to the Supervisor, Mr. Ankur Singh who joined the team as independent witness.

4. The said parcel was opened in which 11 lace rolls and 3 pieces of clothes were found. After checking, one lace roll it was found to contain 120 strips of Tramadol tablets; 10 tablets in each strip. The remaining lace rolls were examined and led to the discovery of total 13200 strips of Tramadol tablets. The panchnama was prepared on the spot i.e., 24.02.2022. The contraband was seized, sealed and deposited in the Malkhana on 24.02.2022. On 25.02.2022, the JIO, Anoop Kumar submitted the seizure report.

5. On 24.02.2022, during the course of enquiry, the above said officials got the information from the owner of the DHL office that the said parcel was booked through a firm OGS Groups by one of the accused, Ganesh Chaudhary. He was apprehended on 25.02.2022 by the team of the respondent.

6. On the basis of the disclosure statement of Ganesh Chaudhary, on 28.02.2022, second seizure was made at UPS Express Pvt. Ltd., Delhi from the consignment number IZ98X1W70451682510 where recovery of 15000 Zolpidem tablets was made. Further, on 02.03.2023, on the basis of Ganesh Chaudhary’s disclosure statement, a recovery of 19440 Tramadol tablets was made from 3 packages at Global India Express Pvt. Ltd., Mahipalpur, New Delhi.

7. Ganesh Chaudhary disclosed that the said parcels have been booked by him for USA on the directions of co-accused Tamir Ali and petitioner and that both of them are residents of Lucknow. Further, co-accused Tamir Ali was arrested.

8. On 06.03.2022, on initial enquiry, co-accused Tamir Ali allegedly disclosed that his three other associates namely, the present petitioner i.e., Kashif, and co-accused Rizwan and Zahid, who were also involved in sending NRx Tablets to USA, have gone to Himachal on tour and also disclosed they are travelling in a Creta car and will return to Lucknow from Himachal via Delhi in the night of 06.03.2022. Consequently, the petitioner was arrested near Jewar Toll Plaza on 07.03.2022.

9. On 07.03.2022 the petitioner tendered his voluntary statement under section 67 of the NDPS Act, in which he stated that he was involved in sending the parcel containing psychotropic substances to co-accused Ganesh Chaudhary via bus and also provided the address of the consignee on whatsapp to co-accused Ganesh Chaudhary.

10. Mr. Akshay Bhandari, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petition