The main legal point established in the judgment is the reliance on evidence, including the recovery of heroin, witness testimonies, and the statements of the accused, to establish conscious possession and participation in smuggling activities, leading to convictions under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

R.L.Anand, J.

1. By this judgment we dispose of three Criminal Appeals - No. 346-Db-1995 titled Budha Singh & another v. The State of Punjab & another, No. 361-DB-1995 titled Balbir Singh @ Bhapa v. Union of India & another, and No. 446-DB-1995 titled Virsa Singh v. Intelligence Officer, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (Regional Unit), M-I/C, Green Avenue, Amritsar, as all the three appeals have arisen from the judgment and order dated 28.7.1995 passed by Addl. Sessions Judge, Amritsar, who convicted Budha Singh and Virsa Singh under Section 25 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to `the Act) and Ranbir Singh alias Kakku and Balbir Singh alias Bhapa under Section 23 of the Act and sentenced each one of them to undergo R.I. for 15 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1 lac. In default of payment of fine each one of the appellants was directed to further undergo R.I. for three years.

2. The appellant-accused Virsa Singh, Budha Singh, Balbir Singh and Ranbir Singh were charge-sheeted under Sections 8, 21, 23, 24, 25 and 29 of the Act. The prosecution allegations are that on 13.10.1988, Shri R.S. Bhullar, Second-in-Command, 84th Battalion, B.S.F., Gurdaspur, received a secret information that heroin had been smuggled by Virsa Singh, Balbir Singh alias Bhapa, Ranbir Singh alias Kakku, all residents of village Kakkar and had concealed and buried it in the fields of Budha Singh. Shri Ranjit Singh, Assistant Director, D.R.I., Sh. R.S. Bhullar, Joint Asstt. Director (G), Naresh Chander, Inspector, Tarsem Singh HC, Chuni Lal Inspector, Sukhdev Singh SI, Sh. B.S. Risht, Assistant Director, Avtar Singh and others formed a raiding party on 14.10.1988 and went to the border out post, Kakkar. The raiding party was divided into four groups and took their different positions on different directions. They had also taken the secret informer along with them. He was made to stand at some distance to give signal to the raiding party. The secret informer gave a signal to the raiding party at 6.20 p.m. All the Officers saw Virsa Singh and Budha Singh digging earth with a spade from a distance of 50/60 yards from a binoculars. Budha Singh was standing by the side of the corner of the fields from where Virsa Singh started digging the earth with a spade. As soon as Virsa Singh and Budha Singh saw the raiding party, they tried to run away. Budha Singh was over-powered by Chuni Lal and Sukhdev Singh officials of the B.S.F. A portion of gunny bag became visible from the place from where Virsa Singh was digging the earth. Shri R.S. Bhullar directed Tarsem Singh HC and Inspector Naresh Chander to dig out the earth more. Hardly they dig the earth, they saw two gunny bags lying concealed under the ground. Two gunny bags were containing 50 packets each of heroin. The packets were covered with a white cloth and certain writing in Urdu had been written on the side packets. SABBAR 75 was written on 19 packets, two packets were having the mark of `GUL 8900, three packets were marked with `MEER MUT-3, 53 packets were bearing mark of `TWAB-AN-03 and the remaining 23 packets had words `TWAB DOHAM-3. The total weight of heroin was found to be 100 kgs. The head of the raiding party drew the samples out of the recovered quantity and made sealed parcels thereof. The parcels were taken into possession vide recovery memo Ex.PA attested by Shri R.S. Bhullar and other officials. Rs. 5,905/- were recovered from the personal search of Virsa Singh, besides two chits - one bearing the words `Baljit Gill Bombay besides the address of that person and on the other chit No. 8725299/Zila R- Bat was written. These chits Ex.PB and Ex.PC were attested by Naresh Chander Inspector and signed by Virsa Singh and Budha Singh and were taken into possession vide recovery memo Ex.PD. The currency notes seized from the two accused were taken into possession vide recovery memo Ex.PE attested by Kehar Singh and Satnam Singh.

3. After effecting the