(270) IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of Decision: 08.04.2026 GURMEET SINGH ... Petitioner Versus STATE OF PUNJAB ...Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASJIT SINGH BEDI Present: Mr. Harshdeep Singh, Advocate with Mr. Varun Singla, Advocate for Mr. Lupil Gupta, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Attar Ahmed, AAG, Punjab.

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JASJIT SINGH BEDI, J.

The prayer in this 2^nd petition under Section 483 BNSS, 2023 is for the grant of regular bail in case bearing FIR No.130 dated 10.08.2021 registered under Sections 21/23/29/61/85 of NDPS Act and Sections 419/420/467/468/471/120-B of IPC at Police Station STF, SAS Nagar Mohali.

2. The brief facts of the case are that secret information was received by the investigating agency that Gurmeet Singh son of Jasbir Singh, resident of Village Narli, District Tarn Taran was indulging in the smuggling of heroin for a long time and had close contacts with Pakistan based smugglers. He had got heroin from Pakistan in huge quantity and supplied the same in various parts of Punjab. He was in touch with Pakistani smugglers and was likely to finalize a deal with them soon. As per the deal, the Pakistani dealers would send a huge consignment of heroin to Gurmeet Singh on the intervening night of 09/10.08.2021 via BOP Muhawa over the border fencing. If checking was done at BOP, Muhawa, then the Pakistani heroin smugglers could be apprehended alongwith Gurmeet Singh with a huge consignment of heroin.

Based on the secret information, An FIR No.130 dated

10.08.2021 under Sections 21,23 and 29 of the NDPS Act Police Station Special Task Force, SAS Nagar, came to be registered. Pursuant thereto, a raid was conducted on the intervening night of 09/10.08.2021 on the basis of the secret information but no recovery could be effected and the petitioner was not found at the spot. A similar raid was conducted on 18/19.08.2021, which was unsuccessful. Subsequently, on 25.05.2022, secret information was received once again by the investigating agency that the petitioner was smuggling a huge quantity of heroin in the area of BOP Bharowal. Thereafter, one SI Vinod Sharma alongwith other police officials reached at BOP Bharowal and informed the officials of BSF 144 Battalion. At about 11.00 p.m., a drone was found coming from the Pakistan side which was fired at. It dropped two packets of heroin and went back to the Pakistan side. The packets contained 1.120 grams of heroin each. Thereby 02 Kilos 240 grams of heroin was recovered.

3. The petitioner sought the concession of anticipatory bail, which was dismissed. Later, he was arrested and the recovery of 690 grams of heroin came to be effected from him.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present case. The mandatory provisions of Sections 42 and 50 of the NDPS Act have not been complied with in their proper perspective. No independent witness was joined at the time of search and seizure. As the petitioner is a first-time offender, is in custody since 28.03.2024 but only 02 of the 24 prosecution witnesses have been examined so far, the trial of the present case is not likely to be concluded anytime soon and therefore, he is entitled to the concession of bail in view of the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Nitish Adhikary @ Bapan Versus The State of West Bengal, SLP (Crl.) Nos.5769/2022 arising out of judgment and order dated 04.05.2022 in CRM(NDPS) No.442/2022, decided on 01.08.2022 and Hasanujjaman & others Versus The State of West Bengal, SLP (Crl.) No.(s).3221/2023 arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 29.11.2022 in CRM(NDPS) No.1323/2022, decided on 04.05.2023

5. A reply dated 09.03.2026 by way of an affidavit of Raj Kumar, PPS, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Anti Narcotics Task Force, Border Range, District Amritsar has been filed on behalf of the State by the learned counsel for the State. The same is taken on record. He contends that comm