ANIL KUMAR. Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both these appeals have arisen out of same judgment and also entail common questions of facts and law, therefore, these appeals are being decided by a common judgment.

(2.) The appellants by way of instant appeals have assailed judgment and sentence dtd. 6/7/2022 passed by learned Special Judge-II, Sirmaur District at Nahan, H.P. in Sessions Trial No. 35-N/7 of 2013, , whereby, appellants have been convicted for commission of offence punishable under Sec. 15 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (for short "the Act") and each of them has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 7 years and to pay fine of Rs.50,000.00 each and in default of payment of fine to further undergo simple imprisonment for six months.

(3.) The prosecution case was that police officials H.C. Rupinder Kumar, Constable Kailash Kant No. 565, Constable Vikramjit Singh No. 539 and Constable Amit Kumar, No. 427 of Special Investigation Unit (for short "SIU") left Police Station Nahan for patrol and detection of crime at 9.00 P.M., on 23/5/2013, vide G.D. entry No. 54(A) (Ex.PW7/A). They laid "Naka" at Rajban near "Lau Devi Temple", within the jurisdiction of Police Station Ponta Sahib. At about 12.10 A.M., a person named Rajbir (PW-2) arrived at spot and in the meantime a car was also stopped, which was being driven by Joginder Chauhan (PW-1). Simultaneously, a scooter bearing registration No. HP- 17-9748 approached from the side of Badripur, which was signalled to be stopped by police party by showing the torch light. The scooter was with a rider and a pillion. Appellant Ramesh Chand was the rider, whereas appellant Anil Kumar was on the pillion. A yellow colour plastic bag was found between the legs of rider on the foot rest of scooter. The scooter rider had got perplexed on noticing the police party. The plastic bag was checked and three more blue coloured plastic bags were found inside. All the three plastic bags were checked and poppy straw was recovered. The recovered contraband was weighed with the help of weight and measure brought from the car used by the police officials and the same was found to be 5 Kg in weight. Identification memo of contraband Ex.PW1/B was also prepared. All the three blue-coloured plastic bags were emptied in the yellow bag. The empty blue-coloured bags were also placed therein. The bag was tied on the top and was placed in a cloth parcel which was sealed with six seals with impression "T". Specimen of seal impression was separately taken on a cloth and the seal was handed over to PW-2, Raghubir. Relevant columns of NCB form Ex. PW3/C were filled. The sealed parcel, sample seal, NCB form in triplicate, driving licence of appellant Ramesh Chand and scooter Bajaj Chetak No. HP-17-9748 along with its key were taken in possession vide recovery memo Ex.PW1/A. The proceedings were photographed by PW-9 Constable Vikramjit Singh. Rukka, Ex.PW4/A was prepared and was sent to Police Station Paonta Sahib for registration of FIR through PW-11, C. Amit Kumar. FIR Ex.PW8/A was registered at 2.25 A.M. at Police Station Paonta Sahib. Site plan Ex.PW-10/A was prepared. Appellants were formally arrested. The case property along with other seized articles were brought to police station. PW-8 SHO Bhisham Thakur resealed the cloth parcel containing contraband with four seals with impression "X". Re- sealing certificate Ex.PW-8/D was issued and the case property was handed over to PW-3 HHC Narayan Singh for being kept in safe custody of "Malkhana". The entry, Ex.PW3/A was accordingly recorded in the "Malkhana" register. The contraband was sent to SFSL Junga on 26/5/2013 vide R.C. No. 40/2013, Ex.PW3/B through PW-6 HHC Naushad Akhtar. SFSL report was brought on 6/6/2013 by C. Inderjit Singh. SFSL report, Ext. PX opined the sample of contraband to be "poppy straw".