PAWAN KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The instant bail application has been filed by the petitioner under Sec. 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) for grant of bail in case FIR No.167/2022, dtd. 30/10/2022, under Ss. 20 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (for short, 'NDPS Act), registered at Police Station Bhawarna, District Kangra, H.P.

(2.) Brief facts of the case, as per the status report filed by the respondent-State, are that on 30/10/2022 a rukka was received at Police Station Bhawarna that on 29/10/2022, at about 9:15 P.M., while police party was on routine patrolling duty near a place Drang, it received a secret information that one white coloured Kiger car, without number plate, was parked in pine jungle on a link road adjacent to National Highway Praour, in which, one woman namely Bimla Devi and one man namely Pawar Kumar were sitting, who were in the process of selling charas/cannabis and if search of the said vehicle was conducted, a huge quantity of charas/cannabis could be recovered. Accordingly, police party went in search of the aforesaid persons and at about 9:40 P.M., when it reached the spot, two persons were found in the vehicle. On asking, the man sitting on the driver seat, disclosed his name as Pawan Kumar (petitioner herein) and woman sitting on the co-driver seat, disclosed her name as Bimla Devi. Both the accused persons were asked as to what they were doing in the jungle, however, they could not give any satisfactory answer. On suspicion, the police associated Vikram and Bhupinder Singh as independent witnesses in the proceedings, in whose presence, the vehicle in question was checked and underneath the co-driver seat, one yellow coloured carry-bag was recovered. On opening of the said bag, four packets wrapped with brown tape were found. In the said packets, a dark- brown coloured hard substance in the shape of sticks was recovered, which was found to be charas/cannabis. On weighment, the recovered contraband was found to be 2 Kg and 09 grams. During further checking of the vehicle, underneath the footmat of the driver seat, one yellow coloured bag was found. On opening of the said bag, currency notes of Rs.80,000.00, i.e. 158 notes of the denomination of Rs.500.00and five notes of the denomination of Rs.200.00 were recovered. Thereafter, the police completed all the codal formalities and consequently, FIR as detailed hereinabove was registered against the accused persons and they were arrested.

(3.) The bail application has been filed by the petitioner on the ground that he is innocent and has been falsely implicated in the present case. Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that the petitioner is a taxi driver and he has nothing to do with the recovery of contraband and the link evidence is completely missing. He further contended that the petitioner is in judicial custody for the last more than one year and the trial is not going to be completed in near future, therefore, the petitioner deserves to be released on bail on the ground of delay in trial.