The appellate court must respect the presumption of innocence and the trial court's findings unless compelling reasons exist to overturn them, especially in cases of acquittal.

JUDGMENT :

Sushil Kukreja, J.

The instant appeal has been preferred by the appellant/State under Section 419 of Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short ‘BNSS’) against judgment, dated 12.04.2024, passed by learned Special Judge, Paonta Sahib, District Sirmaur, H.P., in Criminal Case No. 21-N/7 of 2015, whereby, the accused (respondent herein) was acquitted for the offence punishable under Section 15 of the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act (for short ‘NDPS Act’).

2. The facts giving rise to the present appeal, as per the prosecution story, can be summarized as under:

2(a). On 18.05.2015, a police team was on patrolling and traffic checking duty towards Paonta Sahib-Yamuna Nagar road and was checking the vehicles near Behral School and around 04:25 p.m. a motorcycle (applied for) came from Satiwala side, which was stopped for checking. Two persons were travelling on the said motorcycle and they disclosed their names as Ashok Kumar and Paramjit. Police checked the documents of the aforesaid motorcycle. Thereafter, around 04:30 p.m., accused (Firoz Khan) came on motorcycle, bearing Registration No. HP- 17C-3826, from Behral side and he was stopped. On being asked about the documents of the vehicle, he said that he was a local person and tried to move away from that place. The police suspected that he might be carrying some contraband and when the police inquired about the name and parentage of the accused, he tried to conceal a green bag, which was kept by him in between his legs near the fuel tank of the motorcycle. Police checked said bag in presence of Paramjit Singh and Ashok Kumar and other police officials and it was found containing another bag stuffed with some brown powdered substance. The said substance, on checking, was found to be churapost. On weighment, the recovered contraband alongwith the bag was found to be 2 kgs. Thereafter, the police completed all the codal formalities, i.e., the contraband was taken into possession and sealed in a cloth parcel, photographs were clicked, statements of the witnesses were recorded, spot map was prepared, motorcycle bearing Registration No. HP-17C-3826 was taken into possession and NCB form, in triplicate, was filled in. Ruka was prepared and sent to the police station, whereupon FIR was registered and the accused was arrested. After completion of the investigation, police presented the charge-sheet before the learned Trial Court against the accused for commission of the offence punishable under Section 15 of the NDPS Act.

3. The prosecution, in order to prove its case, examined fourteen witnesses. Statement of the accused under Section 313 Cr.P.C. was also recorded, wherein, he claimed innocence and denied the prosecution case, however, he did not lead any evidence in defence.

4. The learned Trial Court, vide impugned judgment dated 12.04.2024 acquitted the accused for commission of the offence punishable under Section 15 of the NDPS Act, hence, the instant appeal has been preferred by the appellant/State.

5. The learned Senior Additional Advocate General for the appellant/State contended that the impugned judgment is against the law and facts, based upon mis-appreciation of evidence, which ultimately resulted into miscarriage of justice, as such the same is liable to be set-aside. He further contended that the learned Trial Court has appreciated the evidence in a slip-shod and perfunctory manner and the impugned judgment is based on hypothetical reasoning, surmises and conjectures. Lastly, he submitted that the impugned judgment passed by the learned Trial Court be quashed and set-aside by allowing the instant appeal and the accused be convicted.

6. Conversely, the learned Senior Counsel for the respondent/accused contended that the impugned judgment passed by the learned Trial Court is the result of proper appreciation of the material on record and the same was passed after appreciating the evidence and law in its right and true perspective. She has further conte