SANDEEP KUMAR Vs. CENTRAL BUREAU OF NARCOTICS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal assails judgment, dated 3rd August, 2015, as well as order, dated 4th August, 2015, whereby the learned Additional Sessions Judge (hereinafter referred to as "the learned ASJ") has convicted the appellant for having committed the offences punishable under Section 21(c), and Section 23(c) read with Section 28 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as "the NDPS Act"). The appellant stands sentenced to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) and a fine of Rs.1 lakh, with default sentence of 6 months' simple imprisonment (SI), for the offence under Section 21(c), and to 10 years' RI and a fine of Rs.1 lakh, with 6 months' SI as default sentence, for the offence under Section 23(c) read with Section 28, of the NDPS Act, both the sentences having been directed to run concurrently.

(2.) The charge against the appellant, which stands confirmed by the impugned judgment of the learned ASJ, is of attempting to export, out of India, 460 grams diacetylmorphine (heroin), by courier, by presenting the said consignment at M/s Alliance Overseas Logistics (hereinafter referred to as "AOL"), Ludhiana, on 29th March, 2010. The consignment, it is alleged, was intended for delivery to Louis Galo, Barcelona, Spain. According to the prosecution, the consignment was to be exported, out of India, by M/s Aramex India Pvt. Ltd, Mahipalpur, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as "Aramex"), to whom the consignment was sent by M/s Overseas Logistics Pvt. Ltd., Bhikaji Cama Place (hereinafter referred to as "Overseas Logistics") who, in turn, received the consignment from AOL, Ludhiana.

(3.) The respondent-Central Bureau of Narcotics (hereinafter referred to as "CBN") alleged, before the learned ASJ, that, pursuant to receipt of intelligence, a team of its officers visited the office of Aramex, where the package was produced, at their instructions, by Harihar Thakur (PW-7) and Devender Negi (PW-8), employees of Aramex, and that the package, on being opened, was found to contain, inter alia, eight pairs of ladies slippers, with one small polythene packet of heroin concealed in the sole and two small polythene packets of heroin concealed in the heel, of each slipper. As a result, sixteen packets of heroin were recovered, in total, from the soles and thirty-two packets of heroin were recovered from the heels of the said slippers, working out to a total of forty-eight packets. The gross weight of the packets was found to be 500 grams, with the weight of the powder (found, on analysis at the spot, to be heroin) to be 460 grams. The powder was mixed into one homogeneous lot, out of which two samples of powder, of 5 grams each, were retrieved and placed in two packets, marked 'A' and 'B', which were sealed with seals bearing the insignias 'RV, CBN'. The samples were, subsequently, tested in the Central Revenues Control Laboratory (CRCL), and were found to be heroin, of 1.4% w/w purity.