ORDER

Date : 19-07-2021 Heard Mr. T. Tapak, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. T. Ete, learned Addl. P.P., appearing on behalf of the State of Arunachal Pradesh.

This is a bail application preferred by the petitioner under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, praying for grant of bail to the accused Shri Khampai Wangsa who was arrested by the Pongchau police on 25.02.2021, in connection with Pongchau P.S. Case No.

06/2021 u/s. 17/18 of the NDPS Act.

The aforesaid police case came to be registered on an First Information Report(FIR), dated

24.02.2021, lodged before the Officer-in-Charge of the Pongchau Police Station, by one Rank Nb/Sub Mahesh Chandra of 40-Assam Rifles stating that on 24.02.2021, at around 0930 hours, one of the passengers, namely, Smt. Phephot Wangsa, wife of Khampai Wangsa, travelling from Konsa to Longding in Vehicle No. AR-18/1692 was found to be in possession of 22 packets of suspected brown sugar(weight 304 gms. without container), for which, Smti. Phephot Wangsa was arrested on the same day.

The petitioner by filing this bail application contends that the accused, herein, has been in the custody since 25.02.2021 and he is nowhere involved in the commission of the offence alleged and he has been arrested and kept under detention only on the basis of the statement of his wife i.e.

Smt. Phephot Wangsa.

This Court, vide order, dated 22.06.2021, while issuing notice to the learned Addl. P.P., Arunachal Pradesh, had also called for the CD.

The CD, as called for, has been produced by Mr. Ete, learned Addl. P.P., Arunachal Pradesh, who, opposes the prayer for grant of bail to the accused contending that there are sufficient incriminating materials in the CD in connection with Pongchau Police Station Case No. 06/2021.

It is also noticed that the wife of the accused namely, Smt. Phephot Wangsa, who was the first one to be arrested by the police in connection with Pongchau Police Station Case No. 06/2021, on 24.02.2021; had filed a bail application being B.A. No. 25/2021 which was disposed of by this Court, vide order, dated 31.05.2021, by granting bail to the accused Smt. Phephot Wangsa in connection with the aforesaid Pongchau Police Station Case No. 06/2021 on the ground that the accused in the instant case as well as Smt. Phephot Wangsa who had been detained in connection with Pongchau Police Station Case No. 06/2021 since 24.02.2021, have 5 minor children including one 8 months old. On perusal of the CD, it is noticed from the statement of Smt. Phephot Wangsa, the wife of the accused person, that one person named Aman from Myanmar, had come to the house of the accused and gave her 2 packed boxes with a request to hand it over to an unknown person at Longding. It appears that the accused person, herein, had instructed his wife Smt. Phephot Wangsa to deliver those 2 packed boxes at Longding and that is how, his wife Smt. Phephot Wangsa had been apprehended on 24.02.2021 while she was on her way from Konsa to Longding in Vehicle No. AR-18/1692.

On further perusal of the CD, it is noticed that the accused Shri Khampai Wangsa has also reiterated what has been stated by his wife Smt. Phephot Wangsa. It also appears from the statement of the accused that he was aware of the fact that those 2 packed boxes contained suspected contraband substances.

The suspected contraband substances seized in the instant case is of a commercial quantity.

As the learned Addl. P.P., Arunachal Pradesh, has objected to the grant of bail in the instant case on the basis of sufficient incriminating materials available in the CD against the accused person; it does not appear to this Court, on perusal of the materials made available in the CD, that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused is not guilty of the offence alleged. Equally, there is no material available, either, in the CD, or, in the pleadings made in the bail application that the accused is not likely to commit any similar nature of offence