Advocates:
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant :Mr. Raghav Chadha, Advocate
For the Respondent:Mr. Siddharath Sandhu, Assistant Advocate, General, Punjab.

JUDGMENT :

Harkesh Manuja, J.

Present appeal has been preferred against the judgment dated 20.01.2024 passed by Judge Special Court, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, vide which appellant has been convicted u/s 21 of The Narcotic Drugs And Psychotropic Substances, Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred as 'the Act') and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of two months and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000/- and in default of payment of fine, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment of 15 days.

2. Brief facts of the case are that on 02.07.2019, main accused, Sunny, was arrested by Police during patrolling from whom recovery of 20 injections of Buprenorphine, 20 injections of Avil and 20g of Heroin was effected from him. On 03.07.2019, Sunny made a disclosure statement and named co-accused Paramjit Kaur followed by his another disclosure statement made on 04.07.2019, wherein he named the present appellant, Pritpal Singh and accordingly, on 06.07.2019, appellant was also nominated as accused. Appellant was arrested from Delhi Airport on 09.07.2019 and made a disclosure that 6/7 grams of Heroin was lying concealed in the motor-room of his fields and he can get the same recovered.

2.1 On 10.07.2019, appellant Pritpal Singh got recovered the said Heroin and on the directions of the DSP, ASI Jarnail Singh weighed the same with weighing kanda, which came out to be 5 grams including envelope. The parcel of the same was prepared, which was sealed by ASI Jarnail Singh with his seal bearing impression "JS". The sample seal impression was separately prepared in triplicate and seal after use was handed over to ASI Jasvir Singh. The DSP also sealed the same with his seal bearing impression "HS". Thereafter, the case property parcel of said Heroin and accused Pritpal Singh was produced before Addl. SHO Mahinder Singh, who verified the facts from the accused and sealed the same with his seal bearing impression "MS". On 11.07.2019, the case property parcel of Heroin along with accused Pritpal Singh was produced before Ms.Harpreet Kaur Nafra, Duty Magistrate, SBS Nagar. Parcel of the case property was seen by learned Magistrate and after break open the seals affixed on the same, resealed it with her seal bearing impression "HKN". On 12.07.2019, the sample parcel of Heroin was sent to the office of Chemical Examiner, Ludhiana by MHC through Ct. Rajinder Singh. It was alleged by the prosecution that all the accused connived with each other to indulge in the business of contraband. On receipt of the report of Chemical Examiner and after completion of all other formalities of investigation, the challan against all the accused was presented in the Court.

2.2 Finding a prima-facie case for the offence under Sections 21, 22, 25 and 29 of the NDPS Act, charge sheet was served upon the accused accordingly, to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. In order to prove its case, the prosecution examined the following witnesses:-

PW-1 HC-Naresh Kumar, with whom case property was deposited.

PW-2 Ct-Iqbal Singh, who deposited the sample parcels in the laboratory.

PW-3 Ct-Rajinder Singh, who also deposited the sample parcel of Heroin in the laboratory.

PW-4 Rajan Bhatia, Jr.Assistant from the office of SDM, Nawanshahr. PW-5 Sub Inspector Jarnail Singh, who apprehended accused Sunny and conducted part investigation in this case.

PW-6 ASI Resham Lal (Retired) member of the police party headed by ASI Jarnail Singh.

PW-7 Sukhpreet Singh Deputy Branch Manager of Yes Bank

PW-8 ASI Parshotam lal, who arrested accused Pritpal Singh.

PW-9 ASI Jasvir Singh to whom seal after use was handed over by ASI Jarnail Singh.

PW-10 ASI-Manjit Singh, attesting witness of recovery memo of mobile phones and confessional statement of accused Sunny.

PW-11 Pankaj official from HDFC Bank, Nawanshahr.

PW-12 Ct. Baljinder Singh, who produced the record of posting of accused HC Pritpal Singh.

PW-13 Jagbir Singh Nodal Officer, Reliance JIO Info Com Ltd, who produced the record of Mobile No.78885485