O R D E R

The petitioner seeks anticipatory bail under Section

438 of Code of Criminal Procedure in FIR No. 24 of 2022, dated 06.02.2022, under Sections 21, 25 and 29 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (in short ‘NDPS Act’), registered at Police Station, Dhalli, District Shimla.

2. The prosecution case is that:-

2(i) On 06.02.2022, a secret information was received by the police patrolling party to the effect that a vehicle with a particular registration number was parked near Bhakelti road in Mashobra with four occupants namely; Kamlesh Kumar, Rakesh, Mahinder and Naveen. They had brought Heroin from Chandigarh. The search of the vehicle at that very point of time could result into recovery of the contraband.

The information was reliable. Therefore, procedure in accordance with Section 42 of the Act was followed. The raiding party reached the place described in the information. The vehicle detailed by the informant was found parked at the given place with four occupants. Their details were confirmed as Kamlesh, Rakesh, Mahinder and Naveen. Search of the vehicle was carried out in accordance with law. During the search, 27.11 grams of Heroin was recovered. The recovery led to registration of FIR and arrest of the four occupants of the vehicle.

2(ii) Investigation was carried out in the matter. The four accused persons statedly disclosed as under:

2(ii)(a) On 05.02.2022, they had gone from Shimla to Zirakpur in the vehicle in question. Sandeep (bail petitioner) had also accompanied them. He was to procure the contraband for the other four persons

2(ii)(b) At around 9:00/9:30 P.M. all the five persons including the petitioner reached Hotel Crown Silver City at Zirakpur and stayed in its Room No. 205. The room was booked by the petitioner and Rakesh on furnishing their Aadhar Cards as identity proof.

2(ii)(c) Bail petitioner procured 29 grams of Heroin from somewhere and handed over the same to the other four accused persons. In lieu of this contraband, accused Rakesh had given Rs. 25000/- to the bail petitioner after withdrawing the amount from his ATM. Rs. 6000/- was also paid by accused Rakesh in cash to the petitioner. Accused Ravi also paid Rs.4000/- in cash to the petitioner.

2(ii)(d) Some quantity of the contraband was consumed by the five accused persons. The remaining contraband was being brought by the four accused persons when they were intercepted by the police. Bail petitioner had not accompanied the four accused persons on their return journey. He remained at Zirakpur.

2(iii) Further investigations were carried in the FIR. The copies of the Aadhar Cards deposited by the petitioner and accused Rakesh for booking the room in the hotel were collected. The CCTV footage from the hotel was also taken into possession which showed all the five accused persons including the bail petitioner coming out and going in the said Hotel room as well as while booking the room in the hotel.

2(iv) Investigation also disclosed that accused Rakesh had withdrawn Rs. 25000/- through his ATM from his bank account. The account details were obtained by the investigating agency.

2(v) The call detail records were also procured by the investigating agency. These documents revealed that all the five accused persons including the bail petitioner had exchanged calls amongst themselves. The location of mobile number used by the petitioner was the same as of the other co- accused persons on 05.02.2022 i.e. when the accused persons were going from Shimla to Zirakpur and stayed at Zirakpur.

3. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and gone through the status report as well as the record produced by the investigating agency. Learned counsel for the petitioner argued that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the FIR in question. The contraband was not recovered from his possession. He has been implicated only because his name cropped up during investigation. Learned counsel further submitted that the petitioner is not connected with the