Point of Law: Mere fact that the accused is in custody for more than one year, may not be a relevant consideration to release the accused on bail.

JUDGMENT :

KRISHAN PAHAL, J.

1. Heard Mr. Pal Singh Yadav, learned counsel for the applicants and Mr. Digvijay Nath Dubey, learned counsel for the DRI and also perused the material placed on record.

2. Since the above three bail applications of the accused-applicants pertain to common recovery, therefore, I am deciding all these applications by a common judgment.

3. By means of the present applications, the applicant, Chandra Shekhar Prasad Sah (in C.M.B.A. No. 4961 of 2019), Baijnath Prasad Sah Kanoo (in C.M.B.A. No. 4952 of 2019) and Krishna Kumar (in C.M.B.A. No. 4934 of 2019) seek bail in Complaint Case No. 01 of 2017, under Sections 8(c)/20(b)(iii)(c)/25 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, Police Station-D.R.I. Lucknow, District-Lucknow, during the pendency of trial.

4. Brief facts of the case, in a nutshell, are that the Deputy Director, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Lucknow received an information from Patna on 6.2.2017 that one Santro car bearing No. PB-23J-4874 had gone to Kathmandu, Nepal via Raxaul for taking a huge quantity of contraband i.e. charas on 3.2.2017 at 05:00 AM and is now returning via Gorakhpur-Lucknow and is bound to Haryana. A team was constituted by the Deputy Director, Directorate Of Revenue Intelligence, Lucknow on 6.2.2017 at 05:45 PM in his office to intercept the alleged car. On 7.2.2017 at about 04:30 AM, the alleged car was intercepted by the said team of DRI and found four persons, namely, Krishna Kumar and co-accused Pankaj Kumar, were sitting on driver and co-driver seat, respectively and on rear side Baijnath Prasad Sah Kanoo and Chandra Shekhar Prasad Sah were sitting. The statements of the accused-applicants were undertaken u/s 67 of NDPS Act wherein they confessed to have been carrying contraband charas in the cavity inside the car. It has further been alleged that the mandatory provisions of Sections 42 and 50 of NDPS Act were complied with and since the place of apprehending the accused was a public place, they were taken to a secured place i.e. in the office of DRI at about 06:00 AM. From the personal search of the accused, Krishna Kumar, Pankaj Kumar and Baijnath Prasad Sah Kanoo, their driving licence along with other documents were recovered. In all 102 bars of contraband charas were recovered from the cavities inside the car. Proper numbering of the said bars of contraband were done as P-1 to P-102. The said contraband was tested by a Drug Detection Kit and was found positive. The weight of each bar was from 500 to 590 grams. In all, three batches of contraband were made in which two batches are of 40-40 bars and one is of 22 bars. The sample of 24 grams each in duplicate were taken from each batch by extracting from each bar of contraband. The weight of total contraband was found 53.54 kilograms and after reducing the weight of the sample taken, the net weight was found 53.20 kilograms. It was also estimated that the price of the said contraband in the open market would be around Rs. 53,20,000/-.

5. Learned counsels for the applicants have vehemently argued that the applicants have been falsely implicated in the present case. They have nothing to do with the said offence. The sample of alleged contraband has not been drawn pursuant to the Standing Order No. 1/88 issued by the Central Government of India. There is no compliance of mandatory provision of Section 50 of NDPS Act. The alleged recovery is stated to have been made from the cavity inside the car and it cannot be assigned to the applicants. It is also argued that the accused persons Chandra Shekhar Prasad Sah and Baijnath Prasad Sah Kanoo, were only travelling as passengers in the said car and they had boarded the said car to go to work as labour at Lucknow. As per the chemical analysis report, the gross weight of the sample with plastic pouch was found to be 21.3 grams which casts doubt on the prosecution story as it is stated by them that they had sent the sample of 24 grams from each packets. The perc