MALLAPPA SATAPPA SATHE Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is filed by the appellant/accused under Sec. 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, (for short, 'Cr.P.C.') praying to set aside the judgment of conviction and order on sentence dtd. 4/1/2021 passed by the Principal Sessions Judge/Special Judge, Vijayapura, (for short 'trial Court') in Special (NDPS) Case No.3/2018, wherein the trial Court convicted the appellant and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of five years and to pay a fine of Rs.1,00,000.00 and in default, he shall undergo simple imprisonment for one year for the offence punishable under Sec. 20(b)(ii)(B) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (for short 'NDPS Act').

(2.) For the sake of convenience, the parties are referred to as per their ranking before the trial Court. The appellant is the accused and the respondent-State is the complainant.

(3.) The brief facts of the prosecution case are that on 20/5/2017 at about 2.00 p.m., PW3-Excise Inspector received credible information that, the accused is transporting ganja on Bajaj Kawasaki motorcycle, bearing Registration No.KA-23/EF-1977, from Kannur Village side to Tidagundi side. Hence, he informed the same to his higher officer, secured a Gazetted Officer, sub-staff and pancha in order to conduct raid and kept watching the movements of the vehicles. At that time, when the said Bajaj Kawasaki came, they stopped the said bike and on enquiry, the rider of the vehicle i.e., the accused, revealed his name as Mallappa and on being inspection, they found 17 plastic bags containing ganja and said plastic bags were weighing about 750 grams each in total 12.750 Kgs. and the accused revealed that he has grown said ganja NC: 2023:KHC-K:8028 and he would sell the same to one customer of Horti Village. Therefore, they seized the ganja by taking 34 samples of 30 grams each from the plastic bags by drafting panchanama, apprehended the accused and registered the case. Later, PW8 conducted investigation and filed charge-sheet against the accused for the offences punishable under Ss. 20(b) and 60 of the NDPS Act.