Point of Law : Object of bail is to secure the appearance of the accused person at his trial by reasonable amount of bail. The object of bail is neither punitive nor preventative.

ORDER :

Bail petitioner namely Kallu Devi, who is behind bars since 29.9.2021, has approached this Court in the instant proceedings filed under Section 439 of Cr.PC, for grant of regular bail in case FIR No. 82, dated 10.8.2021, registered at Police Station Banjar, District Kullu, Himachal Pradesh under Sections 20, 25 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (hereinafter, ‘Act’). Respondent-State has filed the status report in terms of order dated 14.3.2022. ASI Shesh Raj, PS. Banjar, has also come present with records. Records perused and returned.

2. Close scrutiny of record/status report reveals that on 10.8.2021, vehicle bearing registration No. HP-01B-0830 being driven by the co-accused Akshay Kumar was stopped by the police party for checking, apprehending that the person sitting next to the driver of the car, may be possessing some contraband. Since occupants of the car got perplexed after having seen police, police deemed it necessary to conduct search of the vehicle as well as of the persons sitting in car and allegedly recovered 1.107 kg of charas from the bag kept under the legs of co-accused Ravinder Kumar in the presence of the independent witnesses. Since no plausible explanation came to be rendered qua possession of aforesaid quantity of contraband by the occupants of the car, police after having completed necessary codal formalities, registered FIR detailed herein above. One of the co-accused Ravinder Kumar during investigation revealed that he purchased the aforesaid quantity of contraband from the present bail petitioner for sum of Rs.50,000/-. On the basis of aforesaid disclosure made by the co-accused Ravinder Kumar, police after having collected call details report of the petitioner herein lodged case against her and since then, she is behind bars. Co-accused namely Akshay Kumar and Ravinder Kumar, from whose conscious possession commercial quantity of contraband came to be recovered, already stand enlarged on bail vide orders dated 25.10.2021 and 8.3.2022 passed in Cr.MP(M)s Nos. 1996 of 2021 and 75 of 2022, respectively. Since investigation in the case at hand is complete and nothing remains to be recovered from present bail petitioner, she has approached this court in the instant proceedings, praying therein for grant of regular bail.

3. Mr. Arvind Sharma, learned Additional Advocate General, while fairly admitting that nothing remains to be recovered from the present bail petitioner, states that keeping in view gravity of offence alleged to have been committed by the bail petitioner, she does not deserve leniency and as such, her prayer for bail deserves outright rejection. Mr. Sharma, further submits that calls details report adduced on record clearly reveals that petitioner herein was in constant touch with the persons namely Ravinder Kumar, from whose conscious possession, commercial quantity of contraband came to be recovered. He submits that since co-accused Ravinder Kumar specifically disclosed to the police that he had purchased the aforesaid quantity of contraband from the bail petitioner herein, it cannot be said that she has been falsely implicated. Lastly, Mr. Sharma, submits that taking note of the quantity of contraband came to be recovered from the conscious possession of the co-accused, there is reason to presume and believe that she is a drug paddler and in the event of her being enlarge on bail, she may not only flee from justice, but would again indulge in such like activities and as such, her prayer for grant of bail deserves outright rejection.

4. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and perused material available on record, this court finds that as per police, commercial quantity of charas came to be recovered from the bag kept under the legs of the co-accused Ravinder Kumar and on opening of the same, in the presence of the independent witnesses, police recovered one saving bank account passbook of co-accused Akshay Kumar and Aadhar Card of Ravinder Kumar.