The court considered the imposition of imprisonment in default of payment of fine and referred to relevant case laws to justify the modification of the sentence.

JUDGMENT :

1. List has been revised.

2. Heard learned Counsel for the appellant, Shri Awadhesh Kumar Pandey, learned A.G.A. for the State-respondents and perused the material placed on record.

3. This appeal has been filed against the judgment and order dated 28.02.2019 passed by learned Additional Session Judge VIIth, Bahraich in Special Session No.32/2014 Case Crime No.1139/2013, Police Station-Rupaidiha, District-Bahraich thereby convicting the appellant under Section 8/20 N.D.P.S. Act and whereby sentencing under Section 8/20 to appellant to undergo imprisonment of ten years and also pay fine of Rs.100000/- (One Lakhs) in the condition of default of fine passed under Section 8/20 of N.D.P.S. Act appellant shall further undergo six months further imprisonment and all the sentences run concurrently inter-alia on the following amongst other grounds.

4. Brief fact of the case emerges as such that on 26.12.2013 at 20.00 hours, the informer informed to the police that one Nepali woman wearing green color dress carrying illegal drug will arrive India via Nepalganj Rupaidiha main highway from Nepal. On receiving this information, Ravi Shankar Kumar, Assistant Commander made Special Checking Squad comprising of Sub-Inspector, Munni Bai, Head Constable, Vallabh Joshi, Constable Hari Om Yadav and other personnel. The special checking squad along with the informant reached the check post which was situated at Nepalganj Rupaidiha highway and started waiting for accused-appellant. At 18:30 hours a woman carrying a baby alongwith her luggage de-boarded a bus and on pointing out of informer, the suspected accused was intercepted for checking. Even as the accused opened the bag, she started fleeing from the spot. But the special checking squad immediately nabbed her and on asking her name and address and the reason for fleeing, she told that there is charas in her bag and further told her name Anita Gajraj, W/o Heera Singh, R/o Village-Rukaza, P& Ors.-Khadi, Police Station-Musikat, District-Rukum, Nation-Nepal, aged 30 years. The special team informed the accused about her right as per the provisions of N.D.P.S. Act, that she can let her search be conducted before the Magistrate or a gazetted officer, on which she replied that I am carrying charas then I do need to create more witnesses in my case and she insisted the squad team to search her, thereafter a consent letter was drafted and the woman was searched thoroughly and contraband article was tested by Drug Testing Kit and prima facie, the recovered contraband article was found to be charas, therefore, the accused-appellant was immediately arrested. It was found that a box containing charas, Indian Rs.1500/- and a Micromax Mobile. Then, the information regarding arrest of the accused-appellant was given by the police authority to her relatives. On weighing by the scale available there, the recovered charas was 5kg and 238gms. Out of which, 25-25 gms charas was separately sealed for sample and the remaining charas was sealed in another packet. The accused was brought to the police station-Rupaidiha, where the case under section 8/20 of NDPS Act was registered as case crime no. 1139 of 2013.On asking the reason for bringing or taking the alleged charas, the accused told that she is habitual seller of charas which costs around Rs.15,000/- per Kilogram and she works in a Hotel and doing this business for seven to eight years.

5. After investigation, charge-sheet was submitted against the accused-appellant before concerned court, Bahraich. This case was transferred to the VIIth Additional Sessions Judge, Bahraich, where the charge was framed. The accused-appellant pleaded not guilty of the charges leveled against her and she contended that she was falsely implicated in this case and claimed to be tried.

6. In order to prove its case, the prosecution examined PW 1 Ravi Shankar Kumar; PW 2 Munni Bai, PW 3 Ram Kumar Gautam and PW4 Ram Daras Yadav.

7. The trial court on the basis of evidence adduced b