MUKESH KUMAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Sri Parmanand Gupta, learned counsel for applicant and Sri Digvijay Nath Dubey, learned counsel for D.R.I.

(2.) Applicant seeks bail in NDRI Crime No. 03 of 2019, U/S 8/20/25/28 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, Police Station- D.R.I., Lucknow, District- Lucknow, during the pendency of trial.

(3.) On the basis of an intelligence input developed by Vaibhav Kumar, Assistant Director, DRI, Lucknow, two persons namely, Mukesh Kumar and Arjun Singh were said to be transporting huge quantity of narcotic substance (ganja) in a truck no. UP 86 T 5380 being carried in a especially built cavity and is destined to reach Hathras via Maihar, Nagod, Naraini, Banda, Mahoba, Urai, Kanpur and Lucknow. A team was formed by him. Two witnesses were taken along by the team and the said truck was intercepted by the team at about 1.30 pm on 27/2/2019. The said truck was being driven by the applicant Mukesh Kumar and one another person Arjun Singh was arrested seated beside him in the cabin. The apprehended two persons at Nawabganj Toll Plaza confessed to having carrying narcotic drug in the said truck. Compliance of Ss. 49 and 50 of N.D.P.S. Act was made and the said truck was taken to the Revenue Directorate Zonal Office at Lucknow. The search of the truck was conducted in the presence of Gazetted Officer, Sri Atul Govil and the witnesses. Photographs were also taken of the said truck. From the personal search of the accused persons, many documents were recovered, but a driving license was recovered from the possession of the co-accused Arjun Singh. From the specially created cavity in the truck, cubic brown packets packed with cello tape, which smelled of some narcotic drug were found. In all, 69 packets were recovered from the said cavity. Each packet weighed between 5-6 kgs and the total weight of the narcotic material, Ganja was found 357.78 kgs. The packets were marked P1 to P69 and was divided into two lots of 40 and 29 packets each. 2-2 samples each were drawn from the lots after extracting some narcotic from each packet and sealed at the spot. The applicant and the co-accused persons confessed regarding taking of the said narcotics on the directions of the owner of the truck and fetched the said narcotic from Raigarh, Orissa and was destined to reach Hathras enroute Maihar, where 25 packets were dropped of the 94 packets taken from Orissa.