The court established that possession of Psychotropic Substances below commercial quantity warrants bail, especially when the investigation is complete.

ORDER :

KULDEEP MATHUR, J.

1. These applications for bail under Section 483 BNSS have been filed by the petitioners who have been arrested in connection with F.I.R. No.02/2025, registered at Police Station Badgaon, District Udaipur, for offence under Sections 8/22 and 8/29 of the NDPS Act.

2. Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned Public Prosecutor. Perused the material available on record.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the petitioners have been falsely implicated in the present case. Drawing attention of this Court towards the FIR and challan papers, learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that as per the prosecution, on 03.01.2025, after receiving a specific information, petitioners namely Mohammed Saheed @ Shaheed and Zaheer Mohammad were apprehended by the investigating agency and upon being search, Psychotropic Substances (MDMA) weighing 11.25 gms was recovered from their joint possession. As per prosecution, on being asked, the petitioners failed to produce any valid license to posses/carry the illegal contraband. Learned counsel submitted that a bare perusal of the challan papers would indicate that in the present case, Psychotropic Substance (MDMA) weighing 6.63 gms and 4.62 gms was recovered separately from the conscious possession of the above named petitioners. Learned counsel for the petitioners further submitted that the Psychotropic Substance separately recovered from the conscious possession of the petitioners is below commercial quantity.

4. Learned counsel representing the petitioners namely Mohammed Rizwan Khan and Jauharan Noor Khan submitted that in the present case, the allegation against the above named accused- petitioners is of supplying the recovered Psychotropic Substance to the other co-accused persons. Learned counsel further submitted that Psychotropic Substance allegedly supplied by the above named accused-petitioners to the other co-accused persons namely Mohammed Shaeed @ Shaheed, Zaheer Mohammad and Shahrukh @ Sahil is below commercial quantity.

5. Lastly, learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the petitioners are in judicial custody since; the challan against them has already been filed before the competent Criminal Court and the trial of the case will take sufficiently long time, therefore, the benefit of bail may be granted to the accused-petitioners.

6. Per contra, learned Public Prosecutor has opposed the bail applications and submitted that in the present case, the contraband recovered from the joint possession of the present petitioners namely Mohammed Shaeed @ Shaheed and Zaheer Mohammad is greater than commercial quantity and therefore, looking to the seriousness of the allegation levelled against them, they do not deserve to be enlarged on bail. However, he was not in a position to refute the fact that as per challan papers, at that time when personal search of petitioners namely Mohammed Shaeed @ Shaheed and Zaheer Mohammed was conducted by the investigating agency, Psychotropic Substance weighing 6.63 gms and 4.62 gms respectively was recovered separately from their trouser.

8. Having considered the rival submissions, facts and circumstances of the case, this Court prima facie finds that in the present case, Psychotropic Substance recovered from the conscious possession of the present petitioners was below commercial quantity and the investigation against the present petitioners has already been completed. Thus, without expressing any opinion on merits/demerits of the case, this Court is inclined to enlarge the petitioners on bail.

9. Consequently, these bail applications under Section 483 BNSS are allowed. It is ordered that the accused-petitioners namely (i) Mohammed Shaeed @ Shaheed @ Chini S/o Shri Mphammad Rafiq Mansuri, (ii) Mohammed Rizwan Khan S/ o Late Riyaz Mohammed Khan, (iii) Jauharan Noor Khan S/ o Mohammed Noor Khan, (iv) Zaheer Mohammad S/o Shri Ali Mohammad and (v) Shahrukh @ Sahil S/o Mohammad Yunus arrested in connec