ANGREJ SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ACCUSED Angrej Singh was convicted under Section 15(c) of the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (for short 'NDPS Act') and was sentenced to undergo 10 years R.I. and to pay a fine of Rs. 1 lac, in default of payment of fine to undergo further period of 1 year R.I. Aggrieved by the above conviction and sentence passed by the trial Court, accused Angrej Singh has preferred the present appeal.

(2.) IT is the case of the prosecution that on 8.6.2004, PW3 SI Tehal Singh, Incharge of CIA Staff, Moga alongwith other police officials were present at bus stand of village Chand Puran, where he got secret information to the effect that the accused Angrej Singh and his companion Bakshish Singh were peddling poppy husk. They were present alongwith a truck bearing No.PB -10 -G -9792 loaded with poppy husk near the bridge of drain on the metalled road leading from village Langeana to Jaimalwala and that they were waiting for the customers. PW3 SI Tehal Singh sent ruqa to the police station. Based on the ruqa, a formal FIR was registered under Section 15 of the NDPS Act. PW3 flashed a wireless message to PW8 DSP Bhulla Singh, who also arrived at the spot without any loss of time. The police party headed by PW3 found accused Angrej Singh @ Kala and his companion Bakshish Singh @ Sheru in the truck loaded with bags of poppy husk. On seeking the police party, both of them jumped out of the truck and escaped. PW1 HC Krishan Kumar and PW11 HC Bikkar Singh who already identified accused Angrej Singh @ Kala and his companion Bakshish Singh @ Sheru, as they had prior acquaintance with them. 40 bags of poppy straw were recovered from the body of the truck. On the directions of PW8 DSP Bhulla Singh, PW3 SI Tehal Singh drew two samples of 250 gms. from each of the recovered bags of poppy husk and converted them into 80 separate parcels. Each of the bags weighed 34.500 kgs. of poppy husk. All the parcels were sealed by PW3 with his seal mark. PW8 DSP Bhulla Singh also put his seal mark on the parcels. The entire case property was taken into possession by preparing separate recovery memo attested by S.I. Baldev Singh and DSP Bhulla Singh. The case property was produced before the SI/SHO Satpal Singh. Later on, the case property was produced before the learned Judicial Magistrate. Learned Judicial Magistrate passed the order of destruction of the contraband. Accused Bakshish Singh was convicted and sentenced on 11.9.2006 and 12.9.2006.

(3.) LATER on, accused Angrej Singh was arrested on 3.11.2006 and he was also remanded to judicial custody. The samples were sent for examination and the chemical examiner reported that the samples contained poppy husk.