In cases involving commercial quantities of contraband under the NDPS Act, bail cannot be granted unless the twin conditions under Section 37 are met, establishing reasonable grounds to believe the accused is not guilty and is unlikely to commit further offences, particularly where the accused has criminal antecedents.

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ANOOP CHITKARA, J.

1. The petitioner apprehending arrest in the case captioned above has come up before this Court under Section 482 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, [BNSS], seeking anticipatory bail.

2. Per paragraph 13 of the bail petition, the petitioner has the following criminal antecedents:

3. The facts and allegations are taken from the complaint filed by the NCB. On 08.12.2024, based on secret information, the Police seized 35120 tablets of Alprazolam and 1220 tablets of Tramadol from the possession of co-accused Sukhpal Singh and Harvinder Singh @ Padda. The Investigator claims to have complied with all the statutory requirements of the NDPS Act, 1985, and the BNSS 2023.

4. During the investigation, Sukhpal Singh disclosed the name of one Sonu Singh, from whom 11400 tablets of tramadol and 9600 tablets of Alprazolam were recovered. Co-accused Sonu disclosed that he had been receiving deliveries from Varun Kumar (present petitioner) and his associate Harish. Based on this statement, the petitioner was arraigned as the accused in this case. Further Harish was arrested and he named the petitioner as main supplier.

5. The petitioner's counsel prays for bail by imposing any stringent conditions and contends that further pre-trial incarceration would cause an irreversible injustice to the petitioner and their family.

6. The NCB counsel opposes bail and refers to the reply.

7. It would be appropriate to refer to the following portions of the reply, which read as follows:

“5.That, total 7 accused have been arrested till date in the present case which clearly indicates involvement of a whole network involved in trafficking of psychotropic medicine and two accused out of seven disclosed the active involvement of Varun Kumar( the petitioner) in the said case, therefore, presence of petitioner during investigation is vital to unearth the whole network of psychotropic medicine market which possibly can further lead to the recovery of some more psychotropic medicines and other narcotics contrabands and arrest of some other influential persons who are supporting the entire gang. The custodial interrogation of Varun Kumar(the petitioner) is very much required for breaking entire nexus of trafficking of above psychotropic medicines and other narcotics contraband.

6. That as per the information available through the investigation till now, the petitioner is one of main supplier and the member of the network of psychotropic medicine market involved in trafficking of psychotropic medicine. It is also pertinent to mention that petitioner has criminal history as two FIR in NDPS ACT had also been lodged against him in past, FIR No. 46/2022 PS Maqbool Pura, CP Amritsar u/s 22,29,61 & 85 of NDPS, Act and FIR No. 85/2023 PS Valtoha, TarnTaran u/s 22,25, 27, 29, 61 & 85 of NDPS, Act.”

REASONING:

8. In the nutshell, the investigation points out that the main accused is Sukhpal Singh, from whose possession the Narcotics Control Bureau had recovered a massive quantity