The court emphasized the need for strong, compelling reasons for the grant of bail post-conviction and applied the provisions of the NDPS Act to presume the criminal mental state of the accused-appellants for possessing the contraband substance.

JUDGMENT :

In Re: Criminal Misc Suspension of Sentence Applications

1. I have heard learned counsel for the accused -appellants and learned A.G.A for the State.

2. Aggrieved by the judgment and order dated 30.09.2022 passed by Additional Sessions Judge/F.T.C.-II/Special Judge, N.D.P.S. Act, Kaushambi, in Case No. 14 of 2012 titled as State Vs. Bhola Patel (lead case), the accused-applicant Hemraj Patwa, and Vinita Devi have preferred separate appeals bearing Criminal Appeal No. 8454 of 2022 and Criminal Appeal No. 7997 of 2022, respectively. The accused, Bhola Patel, Raju Maurya @ Anil Kumar and Manoj Kumar Maurya, have been acquitted under Section 8/20 NDPS Act by giving the benefit of the doubt, whereas accused-appellants Hemraj Patwa and Vinita Devi have been convicted and sentenced to ten years rigorous imprisonment along with fine of Rs. 1,00,000/- each.

3. As per the prosecution case, on 17.04.2012 at about 12.30 p.m. SHO Dinesh Prakash Pandey, along with other police officials, were patrolling and checking the anti-social elements. At the same time, SI Onkar Nath Pandey, Hawaldar Singh and lady constable Rukmani Devi have also joined the police party. On receipt of secret information that accused Bhola of village Pachasa P.S. Saini has hidden huge quantity of Ganja in his thatch and he could be arrested along with other suspects. Upon conducting the raid, one man and one woman were apprehended by the police, but one man ran away from the place of the incident taking advantage of darkness. On enquiry from the apprehended suspects, one disclosed his name as Hemraj Patwa and the woman disclosed her name as Vinita Devi W/o Bhola Patel. On enquiry from the suspects, it's revealed that Bhola Patel had escaped by taking advantage of darkness. Upon compliance with the statutory provisions, a huge quantity of recovery seizure was made, and a total of 152 Kg Ganja was recovered from the possession of accused persons. The 152 Kg Ganja have been kept in four bags, each containing 47 kg, 45 kg, 35 Kg and 25 Kg. From the possession of Hemraj Patwa, two bags of Ganja were recovered containing 47 Kg and 45 Kg each, whereas 60 Kg of Ganja was recovered from accused Vinita Devi, kept in two bags containing 35 Kg and 25 Kg each.

4. Upon completion of the trial, both the accused-appellants were awarded the maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of Rs.1,00,000/-and in default payment of the fine, the accused-appellants were further directed to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of two years.

5. Learned counsel for the accused appellants submits that the accused-appellants were falsely implicated in the case at the behest of police. He further urged that when the matter was highlighted in the media on the national level and in local newspapers, that the huge quantity of contraband has been recovered from the truck container within the jurisdiction of P.S. Saini, District Kaushambi, the driver and Khalasi of the truck were let to go by the police by taking huge bribe. The actual culprits paid the bribe, and they were freed by the police and planted the recovery on the accused-appellants. He further urged that no independent witnesses to the recovery have been produced by the prosecution nor the compliance of Section 50 of the NDPS Act been effected. The investigating officer has also not complied with the requirement of Section 57 of the NDPS Act. He further urged that the information of the alleged recovery was not provided to the senior officers immediately, violating the spirit of Section 42 of the NDPS Act. The non-compliance of Sections 42, 50 and 57 has seriously damaged the prosecution's case, and the prosecution has failed to prove the recovery from the possession of accused persons and lastly urged that both the accused persons were on bail during the trial.

6. Per contra, learned A.G.A. submits that the provisions of Sections 42, 50 and 57 of NDPS Act have been duly complied with by the investigating agency, the same has been duly p