STATE OF PUNJAB Vs. HARI SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The State of Punjab is in appeal against the judgment of a learned Single Judge of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana allowing the appeal filed by the present respondents, who were accused Nos. 1 to 4. They faced trial for offence punishable under Section 15 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (in short the act ). Each was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,00,000/- each with default stipulations. They were convicted by the learned Special Judge, Patiala, for having been found to be in possession of 16 bags of poppy husk, each containing 30 kgs.

(3.) According to the prosecution case, on 9.7.1999, S.I. Krishan Kumar along with other police officials and one PW Gurjail Singh was going from village Kadrabad to Gajewas and when they were three kilometers away from the village, they noticed three men and two women sitting on the bags lying between the surgarcane fields and a heap of earth. On seeing the police party, these persons tried to slip away. Sub Inspector Krishan Kumar stopped the vehicle and apprehended accused Puran Singh, Hari Singh, Jaswinder Kaur and Charanjit Kaur while 5th accused (who was identified as Amrik Singh by Gurjail Singh) slipped away. The Sub-Inspector sent a wireless message to the police station and called S.P.Os Rajwinder Kaur and Surinder Kaur to the spot and in their presence apprised the apprehended persons that the police want to search the bags on which they had been sitting and they could ask for search being conducted in the presence of a Gazetted Officer or Magistrate. In response to this, the persons opted for being searched by a Gazetted Officer. Their statements were recorded and through wireless, S.I. Krishan Kumar requested DSP, Samana Shri Paramvir Gill to reach at the spot and in his presence the bags were taken and grounds of arrest served upon the appellants and eventually after receipt of adverse report from the Chemical Examiner a challan was presented against them.