DARSHAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Vide this judgment, I propose to dispose of four appeals i.e. CRA-S-241-SB of 2004 filed by appellant Darshan Singh, CRA-S-881- SB of 2004 filed by appellant Anwar, CRA-S-1020-SB of 2004 filed by appellant Raj Kumar and CRA-S-1442-SB of 2004 filed by appellant Ranjit Singh, all of them being accused, who were tried and convicted by the Court of Judge, Special Court, Ludhiana vide judgment dated 15.1.2004 for an offence under Section 15 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') and vide order of the same date, they were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years each and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,00,000/- each and in default thereof to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year each.

(2.) The accused-convicts, who are appellants before this Court pray that the appeals be accepted, the impugned judgment of their conviction and order of sentence be set aside and they be acquitted of the charge framed against them.

(3.) Briefly stated, the prosecution story is that on 27.7.2001, the police party from Police Station Sahnewal headed by SI Dogar Ram (hereinafter referred to as the Investigating Officer/I.O.) had laid a picket on culvert of canal minor, where PW Sham Lal arrived and was associated with the police party; at about 1:10 p.m., a Cargo Tempo No.HR-015-GA-0699 coming from the side of G.T. Road was made to stop; it was being driven by Raj Kumar and accused Anwar was sitting beside him on the front seat; a tarpaulin of blue colour had been put on the body of the said vehicle; accused Ranjit Singh and Darshan Singh were sitting on the gunny bags, which were loaded in the tempo; SI Dogar Ram informed the accused that he suspected that there was some intoxicant material in the gunny bags and wanted to search the same and if the accused so desired, then Gazetted Officer or Magistrate would be called to the spot; all the accused opted for the search to be conducted in presence of a Gazetted Officer; their statements in that regard were recorded; thereafter the Investigating Officer sent a wireless message to Sh.Shiv Kumar Verma, ASP, who arrived at the spot and disclosed his identity to the accused giving them an option of getting the search conducted before some Magistrate but all the accused reposed confidence in him; their consent statements in that regard were recorded; then under directions of Sh.Shiv Kumar, ASP, the Investigating Officer carried out search of the tempo and 20 gunny bags loaded therein were found to contain poppy husk; two samples of 250 gms. each were drawn from each gunny bag and converted into parcels; on being weighed, the residue in each gunny bag came out to 34 kgs. 500 gms. of poppy husk; the gunny bags were serially marked from 1 to 20; similarly sample parcels were serially marked from 1-A, 1-B to 20-A, 20-B and all the 40 sample parcels and 20 gunny bags containing residue poppy husk were sealed by SI Dogar Ram with his seal bearing impression 'DR' and ASP Shiv Kumar Verma with his seal bearing impression 'SK'; sample seal chit was separately prepared; SI Dogar Ram handed over his seal to ASI Manjit Singh, whereas ASP Shiv Kumar Verma retained the seal with him; the case property was taken into possession vide recovery memos, attested by witnesses; the registration certificate of the vehicle found from its dash board was also seized vide a memo; the Investigating Officer sent ruqa to the police station, on the basis of which formal FIR was recorded; the Investigating Officer prepared rough site-plan of the place of recovery with correct marginal notes and recorded statements of witnesses; accused were arrested in this case and necessary memos were prepared in that regard. On return to the police station, the Investigating Officer produced the accused and case property before ASI Prem Nath, Officiating SHO, who verified the facts of the case and put his seal having impressions 'PN' on the case property. Thereafter, he deposited the case property with MHC Ranjit Singh. On the following day, ASI Narinder Kumar as per directions of SI Dogar Ram produced the accused along with the case property in the Court moving application on which Illaqa Magistrate had passed an order. The samples were sent to FSL, Punjab and as per report received therefrom, those were found to be of poppy husk.