Point of Law : In face of mandate of Section 37 of the NDPS Act, High Court could not and ought not to have released accused therein on bail in view of the fact that large quantity of contraband was found in the car in which the petitioner was travelling.

JUDGMENT :

AJAY MOHAN GOEL, J.

1. By way of this petition, a prayer has been made for release of the petitioner on bail, in F.I.R. No. 76 of 2022 dated 11.03.2022, registered against him at Police Station Nalagarh, District Solan, H.P. under Sections 20, 29, 61 and 85 of the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances Act (hereinafter to be referred as ‘NDPS Act’ 1985.

2. The case of the prosecution is that on 11.03.2022, a police party headed by Inspector Mohinder Singh, received information that a taxi bearing registration No. CH-02-AA-3733 was on its way from Kullu. There were about four/five occupants in the vehicle and the occupants of the car were near Baglaher Bridge where they were in the course of finding persons to whom the contraband which was in their possession could be sold. As per the prosecution, the police party was informed that in case the vehicle alongwith persons could be apprehended then large quantity of contraband could be recovered. This information was received by the police party at around 1.30 a.m. It is further the case of the prosecution that after completing codal formalities, a raiding party was constituted and when the said party reached Baglaher Bridge at Ravindra-Nalagarh-Swarghat Road, it found the vehicle parked. The raiding party apprehended the vehicle and after giving their introduction they asked the driver to show his particulars who disclosed the same. Other occupants also disclosed their identification which included the present petitioner. In the course of search, Charas weighing 1.236 kg was recovered from a bag which was kept inside the car above the hand break. Upon recovery of the said contraband, after completion of necessary formalities the accused were arrested including the present petitioner.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is innocent and has been wrongly implicated by the prosecution in the matter. Learned counsel submitted that the petitioner happened to be known to the driver of the vehicle and on his insistence, a few days before the alleged contraband was recovered, the petitioner had accompanied the driver of the vehicle alongwith couple of passengers to Manikaran in District Kullu, H.P. and thereafter, they had proceeded to Kullu and were on their way back from Kullu to Ambala, when the car was apprehended. She further argued that all the other occupants of the vehicle were strangers, as far as petitioner is concerned. He has no connection with them. He was not aware about the contents of the bag from which the alleged contraband was recovered. In these circumstances, she submitted that as the petitioner is innocent and further as the contraband otherwise has not been recovered from conscious possession of the petitioner, this petition be allowed and the petitioner be ordered to be released on bail.

4. The petition is opposed by learned Additional Advocate General, inter-alia, on the ground that in terms of the investigation, all the accused with common intent had gone to District Kullu, H.P. to purchase the contraband. They had reached Manikaran on the evening of 09.03.2022. They had all stayed together and after procuring the contraband while on their way back, they were all apprehended by the police in possession of 1.236 kg of charas, which is a commercial quantity. Learned Additional Advocate General further argued that as the contraband recovered from the accused is of commercial quantity, therefore, provisions of Section 37 of the NDPS Act are attracted and in these circumstances, the present petition is liable to be dismissed because the fact of the matter is that the petitioner was one of the occupants of the vehicle from which the contraband was recovered and it is not as if he had boarded the vehicle a few kilometers from the spot where the same was apprehended. As the investigation had revealed, all the occupants of the car had gone to District Kullu together and they were on their way back from Kullu and were together when t