ASHOK KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner is accused in case FIR No. 145 of 2020 dtd. 18/9/2020 registered at Police Station, Paonta Sahib, District Sirmaur, H.P. under Sec. 21 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Petitioner is in custody since 18/9/2020.

(2.) Petitioner has approached this Court for grant of bail under Sec. 439 Cr.P.C. in the above-noted case on the grounds that the allegations leveled against the petitioner are false and baseless. The main accused Karamjeet has been granted bail by this Court. The allegations against the petitioner is that he had transported contraband after purchasing the same from Davinder Singh, who also has been granted regular bail by this Court. It has further been contended on behalf of the petitioner that as per case of police, petitioner was hired to transport the contraband for a consideration of a paltry sum of Rs.250.00. The motor cycle involved in the case also belongs to Karamjeet. Earlier bail application filed before this Court being Cr.M.P(M) No. 1129 of 2021 was dismissed as withdrawn on 12/7/2021, with liberty to file fresh. As per petitioner, he has no criminal background. He is sole bread earner of the family and the entire responsibility of his wife and children besides old father is on the petitioner. He has undertaken not to tamper with the prosecution evidence. He is ready and willing to abide by all the conditions as may be imposed. Petitioner has also placed on record copies of order passed by a Co-ordinate Bench of this Court in Cr.M.P(M) No. 2084/2020, Cr.M.P(M) No. 760/2020 and Cr.M.P(M) No. 528/2021, whereby the bail applications of Karamjeet, Davinder Singh and Tinku Kumar were allowed respectively.

(3.) In response, the status report has been filed. It is stated that on 18/9/2020, a secret information was received by the police that Karamjeet son of Harmel Singh, a milk vendor was also involved in the illicit trade of drugs, who had deputed his worker Ashok Kumar (petitioner) along-with his motor cycle No. HP17A-8677 to bring drugs from Haryana. Petitioner was likely to cross Behral border to enter Himachal Pradesh shortly. On such information, compliance under Sec. 42 of the NDPS Act was alleged to have been made and a police party was deputed to apprehend Ashok Kumar at Behral. Independent witnesses were associated. At about 6.05 p.m. petitioner reached Behral police check post from Yamunanagar side and was stopped by the police party. On search, a bag was found hanging on the right side handle of motor cycle. On search of bag, 1800 capsules of mark "PYN SPAS PLUS" were recovered and seized. Petitioner was arrested. During investigation other co-accused named Karamjeet, Davinder Singh and Tinku Kumar were also arrested. The contraband on chemical analysis was found to be Tramadol Hydrochloride capsules and the weight of the powder contained in the capsules was found to be 1.44 Kgs. After completion of investigation, the challan has been presented on 24/12/2020.