KULDEEP KAUSHIK Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner has approached this Court, seeking bail under Sec. 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (in short 'Cr.P.C.'), in FIR No. 346 of 2019, dtd. 11/12/2019, registered in Police Station Sundernagar, District Mandi, H.P., under Ss. 20 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as 'NDPS Act').

(2.) Status report stands filed and record was also made available.

(3.) In the status report, circumstances in which petitioner Kuldeep Kaushik, in present case, was apprehended and arrested for having been in possession of 2.369 kilograms cannabis, have been narrated in detail. It has further been stated in the status report that during interrogation Kuldeep Kaushik had disclosed that he became friend of one Lalit alias Shivnath Baba in Rohtak Math and both of them used to consume cannabis together and Lalit alias Shivnath Baba came to Manikaran on 05/6/12/2019 for excursion wherefrom he, through mobile phone, asked Kuldeep Kaushik to bring ?1.5/2 lacs to purchase charas, whereupon Kuldeep Kaushik reached at Bhuntar on 10/12/2019 and met Lalit alias Shivnath Baba, who contacted co-accused-Prem Singh on his mobile phone, but Prem Singh expressed his inability to come on that day, however he came on 11/12/2019 in his own Car wherein, all three of them, went to Ropa, from where co-accused-Prem Singh made a call to Nikka Ram on mobile phone to bring cannabis and accordingly Nikka Ram came to Ropa alongwith cannabis and all of them sat in the Car and negotiated for sale and purchase of cannabis and finally petitioner Kuldeep Kaushik paid ?1,55,000/- to co-accused-Prem Singh on receiving 2.369 kilograms charas. Prem Singh kept ?8000/- with him as a commission and gave ?2000/- to Lalit alias Shivnath Baba and balance to Nikka Ram. They came towards Ropa in the said Car and Lalit alias Shivnath Baba and petitioner Kuldeep Kaushik were dropped by co-accused Prem Singh at a small distance from Ropa Bus Stop and co-accused Prem Singh and Nikka Ram went in the Car towards Sainj. Thereafter, Lalit alias Shivnath Baba and petitioner-Kuldeep Kaushik came to Aut in a private bus, alight from the bus at Aut and Lalit alias Shivnath Baba went in the bus towards Aut bazaar. Thereafter, petitioner-Kuldeep Kaushik started a journey towards Rohtak in the bus, but was apprehended by the police on the way.