IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATE OF TELANGANA AT HYDERABAD THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE J.SREENIVAS RAO CRIMINAL PETITION No.16006 of 2025 Date: 05.12.2025 Between:

R.Rathish Goud and another ...petitioners AND The State of Telangana, represented by Public Prosecutor, Through S.H.O., P.S.Nizamabad Town IV, High Court for the State of Telangana and another ...respondents

ORDER

This Criminal Petition has been filed seeking to quash the proceedings in Crime No.417 of 2025 on the file of the Nizamabad Town-IV Police Station, Nizamabad District, wherein the petitioners were arrayed as accused Nos.3 and 4 for the offences punishable under Sections 8(c) read with 22(c) and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (for short ‘NDPS Act’).

2. Heard Mr.R.Chandrashekar Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr.V.Jithendar Rao, learned Additional Public Prosecutor for respondent No.1.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioners have not committed any offence and that they were falsely implicated in the present crime solely on the basis of the confession statement allegedly given by accused No.2. He contends that the said confession statement is not admissible in evidence. He further submits that the alleged contraband was seized only from the possession of accused No.1. Therefore, the essential ingredients of the offences under Section 8(c) read with Sections 22(c) and 29 of the NDPS Act are not attracted against the petitioners. Hence, continuation of the proceedings against the petitioners amounts to a clear abuse of the process of law.

4. In support of his submissions, he relied upon the order passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Mewa Singh v.

State of Punjab , dated 17.06.2020.

5. Per contra, the learned Additional Public Prosecutor submits that specific allegations are levelled against the petitioners, though

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the contraband was seized from the possession of accused No.1, he specifically stated that he had purchased the said contraband from accused No.2, who in turn stated that he had purchased it from the petitioners. Thus, the petitioners have contravened the provisions of the NDPS Act. The investigation is still in progress. He further submits that the petitioners had earlier approached this Court by filing Criminal Petition No.15094 of 2025 seeking anticipatory bail on the very same grounds raised in the present petition, and this Court dismissed the said criminal petition on 02.12.2025. Hence, based on the very same grounds, the petitioners are not entitled to seek quashing of the proceedings.

6. Having considered the rival submissions made by the respective parties and upon perusal of the material available on record, it reveals that there are allegations levelled against the petitioners that they have contravened the provisions of the NDPS Act. Whether the petitioners were implicated in the present crime solely on the basis of the confession statement given by accused No.2, and whether the petitioners had any role in the commission of the present offence or not, have to be revealed during the course of investigation, especially the investigation is under progress.

7. The precedent relied upon by the learned counsel for the petitioners is not applicable to the facts and circumstances of the present case, on the ground that in that case the parties had approached the High Court of Punjab and Haryana seeking anticipatory bail, whereas in the present case, the petitioners are seeking quashing of the proceedings in Crime No.417 of 2025 on the file of the Town-IV Police Station, Nizamabad District.

8. For the foregoing reasons, this Court does not find any grounds to quash the proceedings in Crime No.417 of 2025 on the file of the Town-IV Police Station, Nizamabad District, especially the investigation is under progress.

9. Accordingly, the Criminal Petition is dismissed. However, it is made clear that any of the observations made in this order are only confined for