242 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CRM-M No.35136 of 2025 (O&M)

Date of Decision: 23.09.2025 Harpreet Singh @ Happy .....Petitioner versus State of Punjab ..... Respondent CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BHARDWAJ *****

Present :- Mr. R. S. Randhawa, Advocate;

Mr. Lachhman Singh, Advocate and Mr. Swayam Bansal, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Raj Karan Singh, Asstt. A.G., Punjab.

*****

R AJESH BHARDWAJ , J. (Oral)

1. Present second petition has been filed praying for the grant of regular bail to the petitioner in case bearing FIR No.46, dated 15.03.2024, under Sections 21, 22(C), 27 of NDPS Act, 1985, registered at Police Station STF, Sector 79, Sohana, District SAS Nagar (Mohali).

2. Succinctly the facts of the case are that the police party, while on patrolling on 15.03.2024, received a secret information to the effect that Harpreet Singh @ Happy (petitioner) was involved in the business of selling heroin and intoxicant pills. It was informed that he would be travelling on his motorcycle bearing registration No.PB-03-BG-6533 to sell the same to his customers in Maur Mandi and in case of raid, he could be apprehended along with the contraband. On receiving the secret information, the raiding party was constituted and it reached the place as disclosed in the secret information. A motorcycle, as informed in the secret information, was seen coming and the same was stopped. A person, who is riding the motorcycle, disclosed his name as Harpreet Singh @ Happy (petitioner). He was suspected to be carrying some contraband and thus on giving the offer, his search was conducted. On conducting the search, a packet was seen kept on the fuel tank of the motorcycle and on the search of the same, 1500 intoxicant tablets were recovered. He failed to produce any licence regarding the conscious possession of the same and thus, the FIR was registered and he was arrested on the spot. The samples taken were sent to the FSL. On receipt of the FSL, the challan was presented and on framing of charges, the trial commenced. The petitioner approached the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bathinda praying for grant of bail, however, after hearing both the sides and finding no merit in the same, the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bathinda declined the bail application filed by the petitioner vide order dated 21.11.2024. Being aggrieved, the petitioner earlier approached this Court by way of filing CRM-M-64745-2024 praying for the grant of bail, however the same was dismissed as withdrawn vide order dated 11.02.2025. Hence being aggrieved, the petitioner is again before this Court praying for the grant of bail by way of filing the present second petition.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner has vehemently contended that the petitioner has been falsely and frivolously implicated in the present case. He has submitted that the case of prosecution is based on the secret information, however there is a blatant violation of mandatory provisions of Section 42 of NDPS Act. He has submitted that though the alleged recovery has been effected from the public place, however there is no independent witness has been joined. He has submitted that there is a violation of mandatory provisions of Section 50 of NDPS Act as well. To buttress his arguments, learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that there is a material discrepancy in the contraband shown to have been recovered in the recovery memo and the contraband which has been sent to the FSL. He has submitted that the petitioner has never been involved in any other case of the similar nature, though he has been prosecuted in one more case under Section 379-B of IPC, however he is on bail in that case. He has submitted that the petitioner is behind bars from last more than 1½ years, however there is no progress in the trial. He has submitted that in the facts and circumstances, the petitioner deserves to be granted regular bail.

4. Short reply dated 22.09.2025 by way of an affi