OBIEKWE EMEANU Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WHEN this appeal was serially called out, neither the Advocate for the appellant nor anybody on behalf of the State was present. Hence, we had to go through the judgment of the trial court and evidence on record ourselves and, thereafter, proceed to deliver the judgment.

(2.) THIS appeal is preferred against the order of conviction of the appellant and the sentence recorded by the Special Judge under the N.D.P.S. Act and the Customs Act. The prosecution case leading to the conviction of the appellant arises in the following manner: The appellant is a Nigerian national who was found in possession of 16 kgs. of heroin in his checked in baggage while he was travelling from Delhi to Nairobi via. Mumbai in an Air-India flight no. AI 215. On 11.6.1989 P.W.2 Sanchis received a telephonic message at his residence from an informant requesting him to go to Dadar for collecting information. He gave the telephone message to an Intelligence Officer attached to N.C.B. by name M.K. Patel and both of them visited the said place in Dadar. At Dadar at 9 a.m., on that day, they received the information from the informant that seven Nigerian persons were going to travel by flight no. AI 215 from Delhi to Nairobi via. Mumbai. The said flight was to land at Mumbai Sahar airport at 13.30 hrs. and those Nigerian passengers were likely to carry about 15 kgs. of heroin in three checked in baggages. The said information was reduced to writing by P.W. 2 Sanchis and it was signed by him and the Intelligence Officer M.K. Patel. The said information was reported to the Deputy Director of N.C.B. P.W.5 P.R. Kakkar. The gist of the information along with the name of the informant was sealed in an envelope which was handed over to P.W. 5 after an entry was made in the information book. P.W. 2 Sanchis discussed about the information with the Deputy Director and, accordingly, they planned to arrange for a raid. P.W. 2, therefore, approached the office of N.C.B. and collected seal and sealing material and other essential stationery to effect the narcotic raid. Thereafter, they reached Sahar International Airport at 1.00 p.m. and went to module II of the airport where the officers to whom they had earlier contacted were already there.

(3.) THE appellant then, as requested, carried his baggage in the office of A.I.U. where two panchas were called. The baggage identification tags on the five bags tallied with the baggage claim tags. The appellants, on request, opened all the five bags. In two of the carry bags, 130 leather pouches were found, 63 in one and 50 in another bag. The bags were of light blue and light green colours containing 63 and 50 pouches, respectively. The pouches contained brownish colour powder. When the powder in the pouches was tested at random with the help of field testing kit, it indicated positive for presence of heroin in the powder. The officer, therefore, emptied all the 113 pouches in one big polythene bag which weighed 16.5 kgs. Three samples of 5 gms. each were drawn from the powder collected in three different small polythene sachets. They were sealed separately in three paper envelopes and after testing the same, they were sealed with seal no.O2 in the presence of panchas and the appellant. Details of the seizure were marked on the sample packets and panchas and the appellant put their respective signatures on the sample packets. The remaining powder in the polythene bag was sealed with the seal of N.C.B. and was put in one large carton which was pasted and sealed with the seal of N.C.B. and label bearing the signatures of panchas was affixed to it. Fifty empty pouches were kept in the carry all bag of light green colour from which they were recovered and the carry all bag was collected in one carton which was closed and labelled bearing the signatures of panchas and the appellant and then sealed with seal no.O2. In similar manner, the other 63 empty leather pouches were kept in the other light blue colour carry all bag and the bag was labelled and sealed. The identification tags on the two bags were removed and seized under panchanama. Similarly, the travel documents of the appellant were seized under seizure panchanama. After the seizure panchanama was completed, the panchas put their signatures on all the pages. One copy of the seizure panchanama was furnished to the appellant against his acknowledgment on the last page of the seizure panchanama. Thereafter, the appellant was taken to the office of the N.C.B.