KHUSHALDAS SEVADAS DEVMURARI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner who is accused for the offences u/ss. 8 and 20(1)(b) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, has filed this application for releasing him on bail in respect of these offences registered at Crime Register No. 338/96 of the Mahuva Police Station, Bhavnagar.

(2.) In the FIR lodged on 30.11.1996, it was alleged that on 30.11.1996 at about 8.10 p.m. the raiding party had gone on the basis of information, to the house of the petitioner and they had seized the ganja plantation from his courtyard under a panchnama. Twenty six plants of ganja were found in his courtyard and they were uprooted and seized. The FIR was lodged on the same date at 10.30 p.m.

(3.) The petitioner made an application for obtaining bail in the Court of Sessions Court and the learned Additional Sessions Court, camping at Mahuva, by his order dated 7.12.1996 rejected his application on the ground that the allegations made in the complaint were prima facie supported by the statement of various witnesses recorded during the investigation and it appeared that the raiding party had gone to the house of the petitioner and from the courtyard of his house they had seized the plants of ganja under a panchnama. The learned Additional Sessions Judge also considered the certificate produced by the petitioner, which was obtained from Panchayat, to show that the petitioner was residing in the house of Bhatt Hariprasad Shambhuprasad, but observed that it was not known as to for on what basis the certificate was issued and that in view of the fact that from the statements and panchnama it transpired that the plants of ganja were seized from the conscious possession of the petitioner, the said certificate could not be relied upon at this stage.