INTELLIGENCE OFFICER Vs. S. YOGADASAN @ KUTTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is filed by the complainant, viz., Intelligence Officer, Narcotics Control Bureau, against the acquittal of the Respondents/Accusedno.1 to 5, as per the judgment dated 16.07.1999 made in C.C.No.149 of 1995 on the file of the learned Principal Special Court under N.D.P.S. Act, Chennai.Brief case of the Appellant:

(2.) The case of the Appellant is that one P.W.4 Vaidayanthan and Mohan, Intelligence Officers were working in the Narcotic Control Bureau, Southern Region, Chennai, they received an intelligence report on the morning of 18.03.1995 and after reducing the same into writing, they gave the report Ex.64 to their Superintendent , P.W.8 Dilip Kumar. It was alleged in the report that one Yogadasan @ Kutty, Accused No.1 residing at No.15, Kumarappa Street, Nungambakkam, Chennai had arranged for the procurement of 3 kgs of heroin from Bombay and that the same would be brought by a lady carrier by name Ritta from Bombay and that she will be staying at Hotel Sri Lekha Intercontinental, Chennai, on 18.03.1995 and that A1 had planned to illicitly export the said heroin to Srilanka along with the aid of one Thangaraja (accused 2) and that both of them would go to the Hotel Srilekha and take delivery of the drugs from the lady and that the place of stay of both the accused 1 and 2 both Srilankan, were identified and if further surveillance is made, the contraband could be seized and the above persons may be apprehended. On receiving this intelligence at 08.00 hours on 18.03.1995, P.W.8 Dilip Kumar instructed P.W.3 Mohan and PW-4 Vaidyanathan to follow and watch the activities of A1 and asked Ganesh and Rangarajan to watch A- Thereafter PW8 Dilip Kumar instructed the Intelligence Officer PW1 Vijyalakshmi to go over to Hotel Srilekha. PW-8 along with Gopal also reached Hotel Srilekha and verified the Guest Register and found out that the lady Rita mentioned in the information Ex.P64 was staying in Room No.629. Thereafter PW8 arranged for search witnesses and PW5 M.Suresh and Ganesh, the employees of the Hotel Sril Lekha came forward to witness the search of the Room No.629. Then PW1 came to the Hotel at 145 p.m. and all of them went to Room No.629 and knocked at the door. A middle aged women opened the door and she stated her name as Nympha @ Rita Fernandes and told that she came from Bombay by flight at about 10.30 a.m. and is staying in the Hotel room, PW8 disclosed his identify to Rita, A6 herein, that he is a Gazetted Officer, Narcotic Control Bureau, Chennai and that as they received information that Narcotic Drug is being smuggled and hence he has to search the room along with other officers. He also brought to the notice of the A6 that if she requires, she will be taken to the magistrate or gazette officer for search and that on the other hand A6 gave her consent to search the room by PW8 and his party themselves.PW8 then ordered PW1 to search the room. PW8 also supervised the search. When PW1 examined the hand bag of A6, she found one Indian Airlines Ticket in the name of Fernandes/Nympha, from Bombay to Madras to Bombay dated 18.03.1995 viz, Ex.P3 and one Airlines boarding pass (Ex.P4) and Advance Receipt/Fax copy (Ex.P5).

(3.) Then PW8 saw an unlocked blue colour suit case, which was claimed to belong to the A6 and opened it. The said M.O.1 suit case contained dressing cloth and that even after removing the clothes, the bottom of the suit case was unusually heavy and hence when the lining cloth was removed, a wooden plank was found and below the same there was a polythene cover, pasted by a cloth tape, in which the officers found brown colour powder, and on examination with the help of Test Kit, it answered for heroin and when weighed it was 3 kgs, PW1 seized M.O.1 and the heroin and the documents Exs.P3 to P5 found in hand bag of A6. PW1 then took two 5 grams each samples from the polythene bag and packed in separate polythene and brown covers and sealed them with NCB seal and marked them as S1 and S2, viz, M.O.2 and M.O. The balance of heroin in the polythene cover, seized from the suit case was packed in a paper cover and sealed with NCB seal, which is M.O.4.