IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Reserved on: 03.02.2025 Pronounced on: 07.02.2025 Varinder Singh ...Pe(cid:14)(cid:14)oner Versus State of Punjab …Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANOOP CHITKARA Present: Mr. Gaurav Kalsi, Advocate for the pe(cid:14)(cid:14)oner.

Mr. Rubal Pawar, A.A.G. Punjab.

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ANOOP CHITKARA, J.

FIR No. Dated Police Sta0on Sec0on

197 07.09.2023 Sadar Kharar, District SAS 22 of NDPS Act Nagar (Mohali)

1. The pe(cid:14)(cid:14)oner incarcerated in the FIR cap(cid:14)oned above had come up before this Court under Sec(cid:14)on 483 of Bhara(cid:14)ya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, [BNSS], seeking regular bail.

2. In paragraph 10 of the bail pe(cid:14)(cid:14)on, the accused declares that he has no criminal antecedents.

3. The facts and allega(cid:14)ons are taken from the status report filed by the State. On 07.09.2023, based on a chance recovery, the Police recovered 15000 tablets of Lomo(cid:14)l from the possession of the pe(cid:14)(cid:14)oner and 5100 tablets from the possession of co-accused Sunny. The Inves(cid:14)gator claims to have complied with all the statutory requirements of the NDPS Act, 1985, and BNSS, 2023.

4. The pe(cid:14)(cid:14)oner's counsel refers to the bail pe(cid:14)(cid:14)on. It would be relevant to refer to paras 4 & 5, which reads as follows:

“4. That the alleged recovery has been made in contraven(cid:23)on of the provisions of the NDPS Act, no proper offer was given to the pe(cid:23)(cid:23)oner before conduc(cid:23)ng the search. The police party has not even bothered to call the gaze$ed officer on the spot. Such non-compliance on the part of the police cast serious doubt on the story of the prosecu(cid:23)on. It is the se$led law that the any incrimina(cid:23)ng contraband, the possession of which is punishable under the NDPS Act, if recovered in viola(cid:23)on of mandatory provisions of act, the same would be inadmissible and cannot be relied by the prosecu(cid:23)on.

5. That it is relevant to men(cid:23)on here that the pe(cid:23)(cid:23)oner and the co- accused belongs to different villages. The pe(cid:23)(cid:23)oner didn't even know the co-accused Sunny. There is no possibility of presence of pe(cid:23)(cid:23)oner along with the co-accused on the place of occurrence. This also makes the story of the prosecu(cid:23)on highly doub+ul. Whatever have been alleged in the present FIR, the same seems to be manipulated by the prosecu(cid:23)on.”

5. The pe(cid:14)(cid:14)oner's counsel prays for bail by imposing any stringent condi(cid:14)ons and contends that further pre-trial incarcera(cid:14)on would cause an irreversible injus(cid:14)ce to the pe(cid:14)(cid:14)oner and his family.

6. The State’s counsel opposes bail and refers to the status report. It would be appropriate to refer para 6 of the status report, which reads as follows:

“6. That there are total three accused in present FIR out of which accused namely Gurpreet Singh son of Bhag Singh was granted regular bail vide order dated 20.10.2023 passed by the Ld. Trial Court, District SAS Nagar. It is per(cid:23)nent to men(cid:23)on that the pe(cid:23)(cid:23)oner has commi$ed serious offence and pe(cid:23)(cid:23)oner was having possession of 250 strips of ‘Lomo(cid:23)l’, each strip contains 60 tablets, which comes in total 15000 tablets and average weight was 63 mg/tablet as per men(cid:23)oned in FSL report (Annexure R-1). The total weight of 15000 tablets is 945000 mg, which converts into gram i.e. 945 grams. The co-accused ‘Sunny’ was in possession of 85 strips of ‘Lomo(cid:23)l’, each strip contains 60 tablets, which comes in total 5100 tablets, average weight was 63mg/tablet as men(cid:23)oned in FSL report (Annexure R- 1). The total weight of 5100 tablets is 321300 mg, which converts into gram i.e. 321.3 grams. Thus, the quan(cid:23)ty recovered from the pe(cid:23)(cid:23)oner is commercial in nature. If he is enlarged on bail, he may try to give threat to prosecu(cid:23)on witnesses or flee from