LOVELY SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Present fourth petition has been filed for grant of regular bail to the petitioner in case FIR No.24 dtd. 7/2/2023, under Ss. 20, 25, 27(a) of NDPS Act, registered at Police Station Dinanagar, District Gurdaspur.

(2.) Succinctly, facts of the case are that on 7/2/2023, the police party while on patrolling, received a secret information to the effect that two young persons are involved in smuggling of narcotics and they would be coming in a car bearing registration No.PB-02DX-2290 from the side of Himachal Pradesh. On receiving the secret information, barricade was laid by the police and vehicles were checked. The vehicle as disclosed in the secret information was seen and the same was stopped. On asking, driver of the car disclosed his name as Lovely Singh (petitioner), whereas, the person sitting on the conductor seat disclosed his name as Pankaj Sharma. They were suspected to be carrying some contraband and thus, they were given offer to be searched. On conducting search, a plastic bag containing 3.300 Kgs of charas and Rs.75,000.00 as drug money, were recovered. They failed to produce any licence regarding the possession of the same. Thus, the FIR the registered and both the accused were arrested on the spot. The investigation commenced and the samples taken were sent to the FSL. The petitioner approached the Court of learned Judge, Special Court, Gurdaspur praying for grant of regular bail. However, after hearing both the sides, the learned Court finding no merit in the same, dismissed the bail application filed by the petitioner vide order dtd. 17/3/2023. Thereafter, the petitioner approached this Court thrice for the grant of regular bail by way of filing CRM-M-18942-2023, CRM-M-54943-2023 and CRM-M-42589-2024, but, the same were dismissed as withdrawn vide different orders. Hence, the petitioner has again approached this Court praying for grant of regular bail by way of filing the present fourth petition.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner, at the outset, prays for the grant of bail to the petitioner on the basis of parity with that of the co-accused, namely, Pankaj Sharma. He has drawn the attention of this Court to the order dtd. 23/7/2025 passed in CRM-M-21380-2025, whereby, co-accused Pankaj Sharma has been granted regular bail by this Court. He submits that the petitioner is in custody since 7/2/2023. He submits that though the petitioner is involved in one more case, however, he is on bail in that case. He submits that on the basis of the parity, the petitioner deserves to be granted bail as the case of the petitioner is similar to that of the said co-accused, who has already been granted bail.