MIHIR OJHA Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of instant petition filed under Sec. 439 Cr.PC, prayer has been made on behalf the bail petitioner namely Mihir Ojha, who is behind the bars since 20/12/2020, for grant of regular bail in case FIR No. 315 of 2020, dtd. 20/12/2020, under Ss. 20 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (in short "the Act") registered at Police Station Bhuntar, District Kullu, H.P.

(2.) Respondent-State has filed status report and ASI Kamal Kant, Police Station Bhuntar, District Kullu, H.P. has also come Present with record. Record perused and returned. Close scrutiny of the record as as well as status report made available to this Court reveals that on 19/12/2020, police party present at TCP Bajaura in connection with traffic checking, stopped Volvo Bus bearing registration No. HR38Z- 0003 for checking. Allegedly, police party after having associated two independent witnesses, i.e. driver and conductor of the bus namely Pawan Kumar and Suresh Kumar, started checking of the luggage of the passengers. Since, person sitting on seat No.3, got perplexed after having seen police and passed over one rucksack/Pithu bag to his co- passenger sitting on seat No.4, i.e. present bail petitioner; and passenger sitting on seat No.4, tried to hide the same below his seat, police deemed it necessary to cause personal search of the passengers sitting on seat Nos. 3 and 4 as well as rucksack kept by them under their seats. On checking police allegedly recovered commercial quantity of contraband, i.e. 1.816 grams charas from the bag. Since, no plausible explanation came to be rendered on record qua the possession of aforesaid commercial quantity of contraband from the passengers sitting on seat Nos. 3 and 4, police after having de-boarded them from bus and after completion of necessary codal formalities, lodged FIR, detailed hereinabove against both the accused namely Mihir Oza, i.e. present bail petitioner and Ankit and since then, both are behind the bars. Allegedly, both the above-named persons disclosed to the police during investigation that some unknown persons had handed over rucksack/Pithu to them for further delivering the same to somebody at Delhi and they were told that in lieu of that, they would get 40,000/- rupees. Since, police was not satisfied with the afore disclosure made by above-named persons, it deemed necessary to investigate the matter with regard to financial transactions, if any, from the bank accounts of the persons named heereinabove. During investigation, police found that both the above-named persons sent Rs.49,000.00 each on 18/12/2020 to person namely Sonam Dorje, owner of Shanti Caffee situate at Kasol Manikarn. Apprehending that aforesaid transaction was made with regard to illegal trade of narcotics, police also interrogated Sonam Dorje, owner of the Shanti Caffee, who allegedly admitted that the aforesaid amount was received by him for sale and purchase of contraband allegedly recovered from the conscious possession of the persons, namely Ankit and Mihir Ojha, i.e. the present bail petitioner. Since investigation in the case is complete and nothing remains to be recovered from the present bail petitioner, he has approached this Court in the instant proceedings, for grant of regular bail.

(3.) It may be noticed that prior to filing of petition at hand, petitioner had earlier approached this Court by way of a bail petition, but the same was dismissed as withdrawn, reserving liberty to the petitioner to file appropriate proceedings in appropriate court of law at appropriator stage.