JITENDER BHATI Vs. NARCOTICS CONTROL BUREAU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner has been accused of having committed offences under Sections 22(C), 23(C) and 29 NDPS Act and in this regard, a complaint case No. SC/110/2020, titled as "NCB Vs. Jitender Bhati and Anr." has been filed before the Court of learned Special Judge. He is said to be in judicial custody since 11.10.2019.

(2.) The crux of the present case is that on 11.09.2019, on the basis of secret information received, a team of NCB/DZU-I was constituted and reached DHL Express Ltd, Rama Road, Kirti Nagar, New Delhi and conducted search and seizure proceedings in the presence of independent witness with regard to a parcel bearing AWB No. 1427173425 and recovered 150 gms of Amphetamine as per field testing kit. The recovered substance was seized under the provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. During the investigation, petitioner- Jitender Bhati was served with the notice under Section 67 of NDPS Act and his voluntary statement was recorded on 11.10.2019. Besides petitioner's statement, there is statement of co-accused Dhruv Kulbe in which he has stated that every 2-3 days, he used to receive parcels of foreigners on the ID of Jitender Bhati and he had warned him not to do so. This witness- Dhruv Kulbe has also stated that their agency is not authorized to accept international parcels but Jitender Bhati used to accept these parcels. Similar is the version of Shyam Lal Bhati who has stated that on the asking of Jitender Bhati, he used to accept international parcels from African nationals and used to send it to Dhruv Kulbe.

(3.) Consequent upon recovery of 150 gms of Amphetamine and after recording petitioner's statement under Section 67 of NDPS Act on 11.10.2019, there were reasons to believe that he had committed offence under Sections 22/29 NDPS Act, therefore, petitioner was arrested on 11.10.2019.