The court held that the rigours of Section 37 of the NDPS Act do not apply when the quantity of contraband is classified as intermediate, allowing for bail under less stringent conditions.

JUDGMENT

Anoop Chitkara, J.

The petitioner under arrest for violating the provisions as mentioned above of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act), per the FIR captioned above, has come up before this Court under Section 439 CrPC seeking bail on the ground that the quantity of contraband is less than commercial and rigours of Section 37 of NDPS Act do not apply.

2. In paragraph 19 of the bail petition, the accused declares that he was involved in two cases, out of which, in one case he has been discharged and in one matter has been compromised.

3. Petitioner's counsel seeks bail on the grounds that contraband recovered from him falls in intermediate quantity. His next contention is that although there are two cases against the petitioner as mentioned in para 19 of the petition, but both cases have been closed, in which, in one he has been discharged and one matter was compromised, as such there is no criminal antecedents as on date. Petitioner's counsel further seeks bail on parity with co-accused Bhupinder Singh, Sunny Sohal and Amarjit Kaur. He further prays for bail by imposing any stringent conditions including surrender of weapons. The petitioner contends that the further pre-trial incarceration would cause an irreversible injustice to the petitioner and family.

4. The State opposes bail.

Reasoning:

5. Facts of the case are being taken from reply dated 10.07.2024 filed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Detective) Jalandhar. On 02.03.2024, the investigator along with police officials were on patrolling in a government vehicle to search and detect crime and they were also carrying investigation kit and also a laptop, printer etc. When the police team reached at Damoria Bridge then they noticed one boy walking from the side of railway station, having black colour polythene in his hand. On noticing the police officials, he became perplexed and tried to turn back. This unusual way created suspicion in the mind of SI Jaswinder Singh and he inquired the boy. The said boy told his name Sunny Jagga and subsequently claimed to use the rights under Section 50 of NDPS Act and polythene bag was searched which lead to recovery of 2 kg opium (two packets, each containing 01 kg opium). Subsequently the said Sunny Jagga was arrested and interrogated. In the interrogation Sunny Jagga made two disclosure statements, in which he stated that he along with his brother Mani Kumar, his cousin brother Pawan Kumar and Nishant Bhagat, were sending opium out of India by concealing them in parcels. They used to receive opium from Amandeep, Sunil Kumar and Harmanpreet and one Suraj was also involved. They were also paying money to one Parmodh to get the couriers clear. After that the police nominated and recorded the statements of other accused persons and offence under Section 29 of NDPS Act was also added.

6. The petitioner's role is that he was providing addresses in America, Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand, where parcels containing opium were sent. Based on these allegations, petitioner was arrested on 26.03.2024. The investigation further revealed that petitioner was admitted in drug addiction Center in Himachal Pradesh for one year where he got in touch with Amandeep Singh and subsequently started dealing with narcotics with him. The evidence revealed that a massive amount of opium was transported by couriers with petitioner-Jaspal Singh.

7. An analysis of the above said arguments would lead to the following outcome.

8. As per prosecution's case initial recovery of 2 kg opium was from Sunny Jagga. During the investigation of Sunny Jagga, the investigator came to know about massive drug cartel involved in sending drug abroad by concealing them in couriers. Although the investigation based on disclosure statement points out that in more than 22 kg