The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for a petitioner seeking bail in NDPS Act cases to demonstrate that he is not guilty of the offense and is not likely to commit any offense while on bail, as mandated by Section 37 of the NDPS Act.

JUDGMENT :

JASGURPREET SINGH PURI, J.

1. The present petition has been filed under Section 439 of Code of Criminal Procedure for grant of regular bail to the petitioner in FIR No.03 dated 06.01.2021, under Section 22(c) of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (Section 27-A NDPS Act, 1985 added later on), registered at Police Station Hisar Civil Lines, District Hisar.

2. Reply by way of an affidavit of Rajbir Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Hisar-I, Hisar has been filed by way of email since the matter is being taken up through video conferencing. A print out of the same is taken on record.

3. As per the allegations contained in the FIR vide Annexure P-1 the police was informed by a secret informer that one Aman son of Joginder Prasad, resident of 232, 6 Kalka Ji, Mithepur, Southern Delhi, presently resident of House No.14, Durga Colony, Hisar is present in his car, silver coloured, Hundai I-20 No.HR-26CL-4034 at PLA Market Hisar, having intoxicant tablets and if raid is conducted immediately, the abovesaid person can be apprehended. Necessary information was made under Section 42 of the NDPS Act and the aforesaid accused was apprehended along with the vehicle and thereafter the process under Section 50 of the NDPS Act was initiated and search was made and from his possession 76000 of tablets of Tramadol were recovered.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner was not involved in the present case and in fact the present case was planted upon the petitioner as he was not named in the FIR and it was only on the basis of disclosure statement of the co-accused namely Aman that his name has been nominated. The learned counsel submitted that disclosure statement is a weak piece of evidence and, therefore, he may be considered for the grant of regular bail. He has submitted that the petitioner is in custody since 10.01.2021 and challan has been presented in the month of April, 2021 but the charges have not been framed and since the investigation of the case is already completed, he may be considered for the grant of regular bail especially considering the custody of the petitioner as well. The learned counsel further relied upon the disclosure statements of the aforesaid Aman and one other person namely Vinod and has stated that there are material discrepancies between the two statements of the aforesaid Aman and with that of aforesaid Vinod.

5. On the other hand, Mr. Naveen Singh Panwar, learned Deputy Advocate General, Haryana while referring to affidavit of Deputy Superintendent of Police, Hisar-I, Hisar has submitted that it is a case where the petitioner had supplied to the other accused namely Aman the tablets and had taken money for that purpose and that is why the petitioner’s name was nominated and provisions of Section 27A of the NDPS Act were also added while presenting the challan.

6. He submitted that during the investigation when the co-accused Aman was arrested and from his possession, mobile phone was recovered and also got the place of occurrence identified from the accused i.e. the place from where he purchased the said tablets in question and since the aforesaid Aman was produced before the learned Magistrate a four days police remand was granted and on interrogation it was disclosed by Aman that in the year 2018 he was working on the post of Manager in Rusan Pharma and Mahabir Pharmaceuticals was their distributor, where he met the petitioner namely Sumit alias Lala son of Satyanarayan, resident of Hari Nagar, Dadri. It was also disclosed by the accused Aman that petitioner used to bring narcotics from Delhi and used to sell them.

7. Furthermore, during the disclosure statement it was also disclosed by the accused Aman that he used to call petitioner from his mobile No.8397891011 to the mobile No.8708235728 of the petitioner and ask him for supply of narcotic tablets in pursuance of which the petitioner provided him with a total of 152 packets of Tramadol Hydroch