The court upheld the conviction under the NDPS Act, establishing that procedural compliance and evidence corroborate guilt for possession of contraband.

JUDGMENT

T. Amarnath Goud, J. - Heard Mr. S. Sarkar, learned senior counsel assisted by Ms. N. Debbarma, learned counsel and Mr. R. Saha, learned counsel appearing for the appellants. Also heard Mr. S. Debnath, learned Addl. Public Prosecutor, appearing for the respondent-State.

2. Challenge here is the judgment and order of conviction and sentence dated 17.02.2020, passed by the learned Special Judge, Dharmanagar, North Tripura, in Case No. Special (NDPS) 06 of 2019 whereby and whereunder the appellants were convicted and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 10 years each and further directed to pay a fine of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees one lakh) only each, with default stipulations for the offence punishable under Section 20 (b)(ii)(C) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act, 1985 (here-in-after referred to as NDPS Act).

3. The fact of the case, in a nutshell, is that one Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, Sohorab Ali Khadim of Panisagar P.S lodged a complaint with the Officer-in-charge of Panisagar PS stating inter alia that on 10-08-2017 afternoon Sub-Inspector, Raju Baidya of Panisagar P.S received a telephonic information that a vehicle bearing registration No. NL-02L-3741 was coming towards Panisagar from Agartala with some contraband i.e. Cannabis (Ganja).

4. Accordingly, the fact was entered in the GD book (GD Entry No. 21 & 22), Exhibit-51 & 52 (as a whole) and as per direction of Officer-in-charge, Panisagar, the informant, Sub-Inspector, Arindam Roy of Panisagar PS along with staffs vide GD entry No. 23 (Exhibit53, as a whole) left for Naka Point, in-front of Panisagar Police Station to take necessary action and to verify the information. At about 1535 hours, they found that the vehicle bearing registration No. NL-02L-3741 was coming towards Panisagar from the side of Kumarghat and they stopped the vehicle. In the mean time Rajib Sutradhar, SDPO, Panisagar also reached to the spot and interrogated the driver of the vehicle to which he denied to carry any contraband items. Then the driver allowed them to search the vehicle. As per order of the SDPO, Panisagar, the other police staffs searched the vehicle and during search a secret cabin was discovered behind the seat of the driver and inside the cabin total 20 bundles of suspected Ganja weighing about 311 kilograms were found wrapped in brown colour plastic tape. Accordingly, Sub-Inspector Arindam Roy seized the contraband with the vehicle and arrested the driver namely Md. Sadik and the helper Bablu Dhali.

5. After that suo moto case was registered before the Officer-in-charge, Panisagar P.S. vide Panisagar P.S. case No.2017PNS 026 under Sections-20(b)(ii)(C) of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and thereafter the investigation was started. After completion of investigation, the investigating officer submitted charge-sheet before the learned Court against the accused person.

6. During investigation, Sub-Inspector, Sri Arindam Roy visited the place of occurrence, prepared hand sketch map (Exhibit-5, as a whole) and index (Exhibit-6, as a whole) and recorded the statement of available witnesses. He communicated the detailed report to SPCS on 11.08.2017 (Exhibit-7, as a whole) and he produced all the seized contraband and other seized materials and documents of the vehicle before this court and thereafter as per direction of this court he drawn sample before the Ld. Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Dharmanagar and also prepared the inventory of the seized contraband and the procedure of inventory was captured in photographs and sent one of the samples to the TSFSL, Narsinghgar, Agartala, West Tripura for analysis and report and he also made a prayer before this court for