High Court denies bail in NDPS case as recovery of drugs falls in commercial quantity category

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Read Order: Jagroop Singh @ Jamba v. State of Punjab 

LE Correspondent

Chandigarh, August 13, 2021: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has denied bail in a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act as the quantity of contraband recovered from the conscious possession of the petitioner falls in the category of commercial quantity.

The petitioner was arrested in a case pertaining to an FIR dated 10.08.2020 under Sections 22, 27 and 29 of the NDPS Act, at Police Station Tallewal, Punjab’s Barnala district.

As per the prosecution, secret information was received that the petitioner, Jagroop Singh @ Jamba, was involved in the sale of banned intoxicant tablets in various villages. A check-post was laid and petitioner was apprehended. From the possession of the petitioner, 180 tablets of Clovidol 100 SR and 1020 intoxicant tablets of Lomotil were recovered and he was arrested at the spot.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that he has been behind bars since 10.08.2020 and due to the pandemic situation, no evidence of the prosecution has been recorded in the present case. As such, a prayer has been made for grant of regular bail to the petitioner.

On the other hand, the State counsel resisted the claim for bail and submitted that the extent of recovery from the petitioner falls under ‘commercial quantity’ and rigours of Section 37 of the NDPS Act are attracted.

Deciding the matter, the bench of Justice Archana Puri observed that undisputedly, the extent of recovery from the petitioner falls in ‘commercial quantity’, and is much beyond the bracket of commercial quantity. 

The High Court cited the decision rendered by the Apex Court in State of Kerala etc. vs. Rajesh etc.,, wherein, it has been observed that liberal approach in granting bail in cases under the NDPS Act is uncalled for.

“In the case in hand, the quantity of contraband recovered from the conscious possession of the petitioner falls in the category of ‘commercial quantity’ as evident from the recitals of the FSL report. At this stage, there is nothing, so pointed out that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the petitioner is not guilty of an offence under the NDPS Act and also there is nothing, as such coming on record, which rules out the possibility to conclude that the petitioner is not likely to commit the offence, while on bail,” the bench noted.

“Considering the same, at this stage, no justifiable ground is made out to extend the concession of regular bail to the petitioner. Consequently, the present petition stands dismissed. 

“However, as submitted by learned State counsel that the charge in the present case has been framed on 28.01.2021 and out of cited 13 witnesses in the list of witnesses, till date, no witness has been examined, therefore, keeping in view this factual position, it is expected from the trial court to conclude the trial expeditiously,” stated the bench.

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