MUKHTIAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal has been directed against the judgment dated 17-7-2000/order of sentence dated 18-7-2000 rendered by the Court of learned Judge, special Court, Karnal, whereby he convicted and sentenced the accused/appellant-Mukhtiar Singh to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,00,000/- and in default of payment of fine, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for 3 years under Section 15 of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (for brevity, 'the Act') and acquitted his co-accused, namely, Jarnail singh, Raj Singh and Tehal Singh of the charged offence.

(2.) SHORTLY put, the facts of the prosecution case are that, on 2-10-1995, police party headed by Sub-Inspector Pawan Kumar, happened to be present near graveyard, kachhwa Road, Karnal, being on patrol duty. The aforesaid Sub-Inspector received a secret information that the accused are habitual in dealing with poppy husk jointly and they are coming with poppy husk in tractor trolley and if a raid is conducted, they can be apprehended. On receipt of this information, Naka was set up. After a short while, a tractor trolley came from the side of railway crossing. It was made to stop. The same was being driven by Mukhtiar Singh accused. He after having stopped the tractor trolley, made an attempt to escape. His co-accused fled away by jumping from the trolley. Mukhtiar Singh was intercepted. On interrogation, he disclosed his identity as well as names of his co-accused. The Sub-Inspector suspected poppy husk to be there in the trolley. He served a notice upon Mukhtiar singh accused calling upon him to tell as to whether he wanted to be searched in the presence of a Gazetted Officer or a Magistrate. He opted to be searched in the presence of a Gazetted Officer. On receipt of message, DSP came at the spot. On his direction, search of the trolley was conducted. 10 bags of poppy husk were recovered from beneath the sand loaded in the trolley. 200 grams of poppy husk was drawn from each bag to serve as sample and the same were converted into separate parcels. The residue of each bag, when weighed, came to 35 kgs. The same were also turned into parcels. Thereafter, all the parcels were seized. On return to the Police Station, the Investigation Officer produced the accused, the case property and the witnesses before the s. H. O. , who after verification, affixed his own seal on the parcels and thereafter the case property was deposited with the MHC. The remaining three accused were also put under arrest. On receipt of F. S. L. report and after completion of investigation, the charge sheet was laid in the Court for trial of the accused.

(3.) ALL the four accused were charged under Section 15 of the Act, to which they did not plead guilty and claimed trial.