The court held that the restrictions of Section 37 of the NDPS Act do not apply to intermediate quantities, allowing bail due to insufficient evidence linking the accused to drug money.

JUDGMENT :

Anoop Chitkara, J.

1. A mother of three daughters, aged 4, 2, & 1, incarcerated in the FIR captioned above since 4th August 2024 for possessing 12 grams of heroin, just 4.8% of the maximum intermediate quantity, and Rs.10,000/- termed as drug money by the Police, without any prima facie evidence to such an extent, and to her extreme misfortune, despite all this denied bail by worthy Special Judge, has come up before this Court under Section 483 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, [BNSS], seeking regular bail.

2. In the paragraph 18 of the bail petition, the accused declares that she has no criminal antecedents.

3. The facts and allegations are taken from the reply filed by the state. On Aug 04, 2024, based on a chance recovery, the police seized 12 grams of heroin from the petitioner’s possession. In addition to the heroin, the police also recovered Rs.10,000/- from the purse, which the police termed as drug money, and based on such self-declaration inserted S.27-A along with S.21 of NDPS Act, 1985, and Cr.P.C., 1973.

4. The petitioner’s counsel prays for bail by imposing any stringent conditions and contends that further pre-trial incarceration would cause an irreversible injustice to the petitioner and their family.

5. The state’s Counsel opposes bail and refers to the reply.

6. It would be appropriate to refer to the following portions of the reply, which read as follows:

3. That FIR No.216 dated 04.08.2024 U/s 21(B), 27(A) of NDPS Act, 1985 was registered at Police Station: Phillaur, Jalandhar Rural on the basis of a chance recovery of 12 grams of heroin effected by SI Satnam Singh and fellow and police officials from the petitioner Praveen @ Raman. The brief facts of the case are as follows:

i. On 04.08.2024, SI Satnam Singh along with fellow police officials were going from Phillaur towards Gannapind in connection with patrolling and check of bad elements. When the police Officials reached near Gannapind Village, one lady carrying a polythene bag in her right hand was seen coming out of her house. On seeing the police officials she suddenly turned towards her house but she was apprehended by the officials.

ii. On enquiry, the apprehended lady disclosed her name as Praveen @ Raman (petitioner). Before conducting search of the polythene bag, an effort was made to joint independent witnesses but no one can came forward to join the police party.

iii. On searching the polythene bag, a smaller polythene bag was found inside the main bag and from the said smaller bag, heroin was recovered. On weighing the polythene bag along with the heroin on computerized scale, the weight came to be 12 grams. The recovered contraband was out into a plastic box and parcel was prepared upon which SI Satnam Singh put his seal ‘SS’. Furthermore, more the petitioner was also carrying a purse from which Rs.10,000/- Drug money was recovered and taken into police possession. Thereafter, from M-29 was prepared. A ruqa was sent to the Police Station through ASI Jai Gurpal and instant case FIR was registered against the petitioner.

7. Dealing 12 grams of heroin is a punishable offence under the NDPS Act in the following terms: