The court emphasized that electronic evidence requires proper certification to be admissible, and insufficient evidence can undermine a conviction in drug-related crimes.

ORDER :

ILESH J. VORA, J.

1. Rule. Learned APP waives service of Rule on behalf of respondent-State. By consent, Rule is fixed forthwith.

2. By way of this application under Section 430 (1) of BNSS , 2023, the applicant-original accused no.9 – Sujit Tiwary, seeks suspension of sentence awarded to him by the Sessions Court concerned for the offence punishable under Sections 8 (c), 21(c), 23(c), 25 and 29 of the NDPS Act.

3. The present appeal and the application for suspension of sentence arise from the judgment dated 29.01.2024 and order of sentence passed in Special NDPS Case No. 1 of 2017, whereby the applicant herein was convicted and sentenced as under:

4. Facts and circumstances giving rise to file appeal as well as present application are as follows:

4.1 The applicant-accused A-9 along with 12 persons had been tried for the offences mentioned hereinabove. The learned trial court after appreciation of the evidence and hearing the parties, convicted the accused and sentenced them as per the aforesaid schedule. The case of the prosecution unfolded during the trial is that, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) received intelligence input with regard to suspicious activities of a ship MV – Hennry. Therefore, the ICG took their own ship and intercepted the vessel on 29.07.2017 which was having a flag of Panama. The Master of the ship was A-1 Suprit Tiwary and there were seven other crew members (A-2 to A-8), all Indian Nationals. The officials of the ICG found the narcotic substance alleged to have been hidden in two cavities of the vessel, modified in two tanks on both the sides. The quantity of the narcotics approximately 1445 kilogram (101.8 kilogram heroine and 427 kilogram morphene) wrapped in the 1526 packets. The ICG informed the Narcotics Control Bureau, Ahmedabad (NCB). The team of NCB officials came to Porbandar Jetti – Gujarat where the vessel was brought by the ICG. The officials of the ICG handed over a letter for taking possession of the items listed in the inventory to the NCB. Thereafter, the Intelligence Officer, 8 crew members and witnesses along with narcotic substance came to Old S.P. Office, Porbandar for further proceedings. The NCB after following the proper procedure as envisaged under the NDPS Act, seized and recovered the contraband and samples were also drawn from 52 packets (A-1 to AZ-2). The eight persons who were on crew, had been detained and arrested and their statements under Section 67 of the NDPS Act had also been recorded. During the investigation, it revealed that, the A-1 was working for an Iranian National Saiyedali Moniri and it was Saiyedali who purchased the heroin and parked the same in the cavities made in the ship and had offered huge amount to the Master – A-1 and crew members for illegal transportation. The contraband was supposed to be travelled to Egypt, but due to some incident, the Captain – A1 was afraid to travel Egypt and ship was diverted towards India. In such circumstances, the conspiracy to import prohibited narcotics into India allegedly hatched in connivance with the Iranian and Pakistani citizens. The contraband brought to India and it was intended to brought at Porbandar for unloading and sell of the contraband. As a part of conspiracy, the A1 - Suprit Tiwary, in order to upload and sell, he contacted and talked with A-10 – Vishalkumar Yadav and A-11 – Irfan Shaikh and made conversation with each other about the uploading and sell of the contraband. A-1 – Captain was in contact with his brother -present applicant A - 9 Sujit