CHHOTE SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE conviction of the appellant Chhote Singh under Section 15 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) cannot indeed be sustained.

(2.) THE case against the appellant Chhote Singh is that on November 19, 1985, when he was apprehended at about 1.15 p.m. by a police party headed by ASI Siri Ram at the Bodhni minor Bridge, he was found to be carrying 40 kilogram of poppy husk and 40 grams of opium. Two separate cases were registered against him in respect of this incident, one under Section 15 of the Act concerning poppy husk and the other under Section 17 with regard to the opium said to have been recovered from him. The witnesses examined against the appellant in both the cases were same, namely, Constable Jaimal Singh and ASI Siri Ram. Both these cases were tried by the same Sessions Judge, who on July 10, 1986, acquitted the appellant in respect of the charge pertaining to the possession of 40 grams of opium but on the next day that is July 11, 1986, he convicted the appellant under Section 15 of the Act with regard to the possession of poppy husk and sentenced him to ten years, rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1,00,000/-. The unsustainability of the impugned order in view of the earlier acquittal in the case pertaining to the recovery of opium is clearly with large.

(3.) SUCH being the situation here, there can be no escape from the conclusion that the conviction and sentence of the appellant were wholly unsustainable and are, consequently, hereby set aside.