JUDGMENT

1. This petition has been filed seeking regular bail in Sessions Case No. SC/138/2017, NCB Case No. VIII/18/DZU/2016 under section 20(b)(ii)(C)/23/29 NDPS Act. The petitioner has been in custody since 6th November, 2016 and has been in incarceration for a period of about 6 years 2 months.

2. As per the case of the prosecution, on 4th November, 2016, pursuant to secret information received from IGI Airport, one lady namely Nympha De Jesus, in whose name LOC was opened at the request of NCB, was detained at the departure lounge while she was going from Delhi to Bangkok. The baggage which was checked in her name was opened and one bag was found having suspicious material which later gave positive results for charas and hashish, the total weight of which came out to be 2.7 kg out of which samples were taken. Thereafter, the statement of Nympha was recorded under section 67 NDPS Act wherein she stated that the petitioner herein was her boyfriend and they were living together in Manali and they had come from Manali to New Delhi to go to Bangkok and that the petitioner had booked his luggage on her ticket after getting the boarding pass. Based on her interrogation, the NCB got the