Prolonged custody without trial justifies bail under Article 21, emphasizing the necessity of timely prosecution to uphold fundamental rights.

JUDGMENT

Mr. Jasgurpreet Singh Puri, J. (Oral)

The present petition has been filed under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the grant of regular bail to the petitioner in FIR No.57 dated 30.04.2020, under Sections 21 and 29 of the NDPS Act, registered at Police Station Special Task Force, District SAS Nagar, Punjab.

2. Affidavit of Deputy Inspector General of Police, STF, Punjab dated 05.12.2023 has been filed by the learned State counsel in Court today, which is taken on record.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is in custody for about 3 years, 7 months and 4 days and he is not involved in any other case and has clean antecedents. He further submitted that it is a case where the police received an information with regard to two persons, namely, Punjab Singh and Suba Singh, which is so incorporated in the FIR and thereafter, on the basis of some other secret information, the name of the petitioner was nominated and he was arrested and on his disclosure statement, there was a recovery of 6 kgs. and 690 grams of heroin from the border of India and Pakistan. He also submitted that the aforesaid fields from where the aforesaid recovery was made does not belong to the petitioner and it was only on the basis of some secret information that the petitioner was picked up and then on his disclosure, the aforesaid quantity has been shown to be discovered. He further submitted that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present case. To substantiate his arguments, he submitted that in the present case the charges were framed on 22.12.2021 and almost 2 years have elapsed but no prosecution witness has been examined till date. He further submitted that the end result of the same is that the petitioner had to face incarceration for about 3 years, 7 months and 4 days for no fault of his but only because of the fault of the prosecution witnesses, who failed to depose before the learned trial Court. While referring to the aforesaid affidavit filed by Deputy Inspector General of Police, STF, Punjab, he submitted that after the framing of the charges, the matter was adjourned for 18 dates and even for 6 times, bailable warrants were issued and 2 times non-bailable warrants were issued to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, STF, Amritsar and on 9 occasions summons were issued to various other prosecution witnesses but they did not appear. He further submitted that in the meantime, one of the co-accused, namely, Amandeep Singh alias Mannu, from whose fields there was recovery of aforesaid contraband, had filed a petition before this Court for grant of regular bail, which was allowed on 28.07.2023 vide Annexure P-3 on the ground that there was a delay in the trial and after the framing of the charges, not even a single prosecution witness was examined. He further submitted that at that point of time, only 1 year and 8 months had elapsed and now about 2 years have elapsed and still not even a single prosecution witness has been examined. He further submitted that the petitioner is also at parity with the aforesaid co-accused, namely, Amandeep Singh alias Mannu from whose fields the aforesaid contraband was recovered and there is no justification from the prosecution witnesses, who are the police officials and who had set the criminal law into motion as to why they did not turn up before trial Court till date. He further submitted that as per the aforesaid affidavit filed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, STF, Punjab, after the regular bail was granted to the aforesaid co-accused vide Annexure P-3, the prosecution witnesses remained present in the Court but they could not be examined, once due to lack of time with the Court and for the second time, the accused was not produced before the Court. He further submitted that be that as it may, the prosecution witnesses were not examined but the incarceration of the petitioner has been perpetuated to such a long period of 3 years, 7 months