A habitual offender with multiple pending cases under the NDPS Act cannot satisfy the twin conditions of Section 37, even if implicated only via a disclosure statement, as prior criminal antecedents establish a propensity for repeating offences.

JASJIT SINGH BEDI, J.

The prayer in this third petition under Section 483 BNSS is for the grant of regular bail in case bearing FIR No.39 dated 30.06.2023 (Annexure P-1) registered under Section 15 of NDPS Act (Section 29 of NDPS Act added later on) at Police Station Ajitwal District Moga.

2. In brief, as per the version of the prosecution, the FIR in this case was registered on the basis of a secret information and thereby, on 30.6.2023 at about 1:50 AM in the area of Kokri Kalan PS Ajitwal, District Moga, accused namely Sarabjit Singh @ Sarba son of Gurdev Singh, Sandeep Singh @ Sonu son of Amardeep Singh and Balbir Singh @ Sonu son of Bikkar Singh, all residents of Malsian Bajan and also of residents of Kokri Kalan, Ajitwal were apprehended while being in possession of 5 plastic bags of black colour containing poppy husk weighing 20kg each in their four wheeler make Bolero bearing registration no.PB-13AF-4564. Then, upon reaching their residential premises, under the shed, there were three vehicles parked with two women standing nearby, who tried to flee on seeing the police party, but they were apprehended and they disclosed their names as Jeet Kaur @ Jeeto wife of Sarabjit Singh @ Sarbha and Amro Bhai wife of Sarabjit Singh @ Sarbha. From the first four wheeler make Innova bearing no.PB-29G-8489, more five plastic bags of black colour containing poppy husk weighing 20 kg each were recovered. Then from second four wheeler make Tata Indigo bearing registration No.PB-29N-1570, three plastic bags of black colour containing poppy husk weighing 20kg each were recovered. Then, from the third four wheeler make I20 bearing registration no.DL-07CJ-5151, two plastic bags of black colour containing poppy husk weighing 20 kg each were recovered. Then from the basement of the premises, 10 more plastic bags of black colour containing poppy husk weighing 20 kg each were recovered. In this way, 25 plastic bags of black colour containing poppy husk weighing 5 Qtl in total was recovered from the possession of the accused persons namely Sarabjit Singh @ Sarba, Sandeep Singh @ Sonu, Balvir Singh @ Sonu, Jeet Kaur @ Jeeto and Amro Bai were recovered. During investigation, accused Sarabjit Singh @ Sarba suffered a disclosure statement that these 25 plastic bags of black colour containing poppy husk weighing 5 Qtls in total were delivered at his residential premises by Paramjit Singh @ Pamma @ Gora (petitioner) son of Balvir Singh resident of village Daulewala and they used to sell poppy husk to Jhinda resident of Kokri Buttar, Darshan Singh son of Unknown of village Bhinder Kalan, Teja Singh son of unknown, auto owner, residing on the road leading from Mallian to Diakalan and Karmi wife of unknown resident of Indergarh and these four persons were their permanent customers. Thus, upon disclosure statement suffered by accused Sarabjit Singh @ Sarba, these four persons, named above, were also nominated under Section 29 of NDPS Act vide GD no.16 dated 4.7.2023.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present case. He contends that the name of the petitioner figured in the disclosure statement of his co-accused. Pursuant to his arrest, no recovery whatsoever has been effected. Reliance is placed on the judgments in the cases of Tofan Singh Versus State of Tamil Nadu , 2020 AIR (Supreme Court) 5592, Rakesh Kumar Singla Versus Union of India, 2021(1) RCR (Criminal) 704, Surinder Kumar Khanna Versus Intelligence Officer Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, 2018(3) RCR (Criminal) 954, State by (NCB) Bengaluru Versus Pallulabid