Clean track record does not absolve person booked under NDPS from being in possession of narcotics: Delhi HC

Read Judgment: Sonia Shamrao Naik Gaonkar vs. Narcotic Control Bureau

Pankaj Bajpai

New Delhi, October 6, 2021: The Delhi High Court has recently opined that an uneducated person may claim no knowledge of the substance (narcotics) and raise a defence of the substance being planted on them but being a highly educated person, such plea cannot survive. 

A Single Bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that a clean & tidy track record will not absolve the petitioner from being in possession of narcotics. 

The observation came in reference to a petition filed u/s 439 CrPC praying for regular bail for offences allegedly committed u/s 8, 21, 27A & 29 of the NDPS Act. 

Earlier, the Special Court in SC No. 267 of 2018, Patiala House by order dated August 17, 2019 rejected the bail of the petitioner on the ground that she was caught with narcotics, in commercial quantity, in her possession at a Nizamuddin Railway Station and on her disclosure statements to the I.O., Charles Ezih, another Nigerian national, were arrested and 180gms of cocaine was found from whose possession.

Further, the Court recorded that, the co-accused Nigerian national had given disclosure statements admitting to his guilt in indulging, financing purchasing, trading and selling contraband and that the other accused Moses Henry has been absconding ever since and has been declared a Proclaimed Offender. 

The Special Court therefore was of the opinion that a prima facie against the petitioner has been made out for the offences she is charged with, appearing that she had been trafficking commercial quantity of narcotics. 

After considering the pleadings, the High Court observed that the grant or rejection of bail under the NDPS Act is governed by Section 37 of the NDPS Act. 

Justice Prasad said that it is clear that the petitioner on February 22, 2018 was found in the possession of Methamphetamine and the same has been verified by conducting a chemical test of the sample of the seized material. 

The disclosure statement has led to the arrest of two Nigerian accused in whose possession narcotics was found and it has also been discovered by the NCB that these two accused were living illegally in India on fake passports, added Justice Prasad. 

The High court noted that the material on record discloses that the petitioner is a part of a network which deals in supply/sale of Narcotics and her clean & tidy track record does not absolve her from being in possession of 600 grams of Methamphetamine. 

An uneducated person may claim no knowledge of the substance found in his/her possession and may raise a defence of the substance being planted on them but being a highly educated person, there is greater presumption that carrying large quantities of narcotics is a crime and that it would entail consequences in law which could be harsh and irrevocable, added the Court. 

Accordingly, the High Court refused to grant bail to the petitioner considering that the quantity recovered from her is commercial quantity and hence, her case doesn’t fall within the twin parameters of Section 37 of the NDPS Act.