BUMBI Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these four appeals are directed against the judgment and order of conviction dated 5.3.2003 and order of sentence dt. 6.3.2003 passed by the learned Judge of the Special Court under NDPS Act, South 24-Parganas, Alipore in Trial No. 1(3)2002. By the said judgment, the learned Special Judge found all the six appellants guilty under section 2Kb) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as NDPS Act, for brevity) and sentenced each of them to suffer R.I. for three years and six months and also to pay a fine of Rs. 20,000/- each, in default, to suffer R. I. for six months more. However, there was a direction to set off the period of imprisonment undergone by the convicts in imprisonment from the substantive sentence. It was also further ordered that the seized Tata Sumo vehicle bearing No. W. B. - O2G-2088 be confiscated to the State under section 60(3) of NDPS Act. Similarly an order was also passed for confiscation of the seized cash totalling to Rs. 14,520/-.

(2.) Against the said order of conviction, the convict Tathagata Sarkar @ Bumbi and Ashok Roy @ Chingri filed C. R. A. No. 124/2003, the convict Sanjib Kr. Das filed C. R. A. No. 97/2003, the convicts Sanjay Biswas and Bapi Basak filed C. R. A. 80/2003 and the convict Anil Khanra, driver of the vehicle, filed CRA No. 106/2003. On consent of both sides, all these appeals were taken up for analogous hearing and this judgment do govern the fate of all the four appeals.

(3.) The prosecution case in brief is that on 7.9.2001 at about 2.25 p.m. S. I. Pranab Moitra on the basis of secret information of the fact that the narcotic drugs were being transported from Calcutta towards Pailan by one deep blue coloured Tata Sumo vehicle bearing No. WB-O2G-2088, recorded the G. D. Entry at Behala P. S. and the fact was intimated to the I. C., Behala P. S. Thereafter the Inspector of Behala P. S. Sri Subhas Sen along with S. I. Somdeb Banerjee, S. I. Shri Suriya Sankar Mondal and other police force proceeded towards the corssing of Seal Thakurbari Road and James Long Sarani under Behala P. S. and two local witnesses viz. Billey Mondal and Kesto Das were collected to witness the search and seizure. Then the police force intercepted the said Tata Sumo at about 3.05 p.m. and disclosed the identity of the I. C., Behala P. S. to the occupants of the vehicle and an option was given to them to get themselves searched before a Magistrate or a Gazetted Officer before conducting their personal search. But all the occupants of the vehicle remained silent and there was a suspicion of carrying narcotic drugs.