DILO BEGUM Vs. STATE OF H. P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeals are directed against the judgment and order dtd. 7/3/2020, vide which the appellants (accused persons before the Trial Court) were convicted of the commission of an offence punishable under Sec. 20(b)(ii)(c) read with Ss. 25 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (in short 'NDPS Act and were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 12 years each and to pay a fine of ?1,20,000/- each and in default of payment of the fine to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year each for the commission of aforesaid offence. In addition to the above, the accused Naseer Mohammed was also convicted of the commission of an offence punishable under Sec. 473 of the Indian Penal Code (in short 'IPC') and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and to pay a fine of ? 10,000/-for the commission of the aforesaid offence. (Parties shall hereinafter be referred to in the same manner as they were arrayed before the learned Trial Court for convenience).

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts giving rise to the present appeals are that the police presented a challan against the accused before the learned Trial Court for the commission of offences punishable under Ss. 20, 25 and 29 of the NDPS Act. It was asserted that ASI-Govind Pal (PW19), HHC- Mohammad Aslam (PW1), Constable Sunil Kumar (PW4), HHC- Manohar Lal (PW2), LC Rajni Rani (not examined), LC Sabina (PW7) were present on traffic checking and nakabandi duty at Behi near Koti Tissa, Chamba Road in the official vehicle bearing registration No. HP-48-1220 with I.O. kit, electronic scale, mega light, official camera etc. A motorcycle bearing registration No. HP-12A-2732 came from Tissa. ASI-Govind Pal signalled the driver to stop the motorcycle. One woman was sitting as a pillion rider, who had kept a purse on her left shoulder. The motorcycle driver revealed his name as Naseer and the pillion rider revealed her name as Dilo Begum. She got frightened on inquiry by the police. The police called Tarun Abrol (PW3) from a nearby shop and checked the purse being carried by Dilo Begum. One white shawl was found inside the purse. The purse was unzipped and it was found to contain a carry bag (Ext. P6). The carry bag was opened and it was found to contain charas (Ext. P7). The charas was weighed with the help of an electronic weighing scale and its weight was found to be 2.010 kgs. The charas was put in the carry bag. The Carry bag was put in the purse. Shawl (Ext. P5) was also put in the purse (Ext.P4). The purse was wrapped in a cloth parcel (Ext. P1). The parcel was sealed with six impressions of seal 'SB'. The seal impression (Ext.PW1/A) was taken on a separate piece of cloth. NCB-1 Form (Ext. PW19/A) was filled in triplicate. A sample seal was put on the Form. The parcel and the vehicle bearing registration No. HP-12A-2732 were seized vide memo (Ext.PW1/B). Signatures of witnesses Tarun Abrol, HHC Mohammed Aslam and LC Sabina Devi were obtained on the memo. A copy of the seizure memo was supplied to each of the accused. Rukka (Ext. PW15/B) and its copy (Ext. PW8/A) were prepared and handed over to HHC-Manohar Lal with a direction to carry the original to the police station and the carbon copy to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Headquarters. HHC- Manohar Lal handed over the original Rukka at Police Station, Sadar and its carbon copy to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Chamba. FIR (Ext. PW15/A) was registered in the Police Station based on the Rukka. The case file was handed over to HHC- Manohar Lal with a direction to carry it to the spot. HHC- Manohar Lal handed over the case file to ASI Govind Pal, who filled in the FIR number on the documents. Deputy Superintendent of Police Vir Bahadur handed over the copy of Rukka to HHC Joginder Kumar (PW8) after making his endorsement on it. HHC-Joginder Kumar entered the copy of the Rukka in the receipt register at Serial No.16, a copy of which is Ext. PW8/B. Deputy Superintendent of Police Vir Bahadur also put his signatures on the register. Further investigation was conducted by Sub Inspector-Bhagwant Singh (PW18), who got the medical examination of the accused persons conducted at Regional Hospital, Chamba on the same day. He produced the sealed parcel, NCB-1 Form in triplicate, seal sample and accused before ASI Ram Gopal (PW9), who was officiating as SHO. ASI Ram Gopal re-sealed the parcel with six impressions of seal 'SA'. He obtained the sample seal (Ext. PW9/A). He also filled the relevant columns of the NCB-I Form and put the seal impression on the Form. He prepared the re-sealing memo (Ext. PW9/B) and handed over the seal to Constable Vinod Kumar after the use. Vinod Kumar also put his signatures on the sample seal and re- seal memo. He handed over the case file and the case property to HC-Rajput Pardeep (PW10). He made an entry in the register of Malkhana at Sr. No.820/16 and deposited the case property and the documents in Malkhana. He handed over the case property to SI Bhagwant Singh (PW18) on 17/12/2016 to take it to the Court to certify the correctness of the inventory. SI Bhagwant Singh produced the accused persons and case property before the learned CJM, Chamba on 17/12/2016. Learned CJM issued a certificate (Ext. PW18/A). SI-Bhagwant Singh deposited the case property with HC-Rajput Pardeep on his return. HC-Rajput Pardeep made the entry at Sr. No. 820/16 regarding the receipt of the case property and made the entries in the daily diary. He handed over the parcel to Constable Pawan Kumar (PW5) with a direction to carry it to FSL, Junga vide RC No.334/16 (Ext. PW10/C). Constable Pawan Kumar deposited all the articles and documents at FSL, Junga and handed over the receipt to MHC on his return. Constable Khem Raj brought the case property and the result of analysis (Ext. PX) from FSL Junga and handed them over to MHC, P.S. Sadar, Chamba. The statements of the remaining witnesses were recorded as per their version and after the completion of the investigation, the challan was prepared and presented before the Court.

(3.) ASI-Subhash Chand conducted further investigation. He filed an application (Ext. PW16/G) to obtain the details of the vehicle. Ramesh Chand, Clerk RTO office Bilaspur (PW12) issued the screen report (Ext. PW12/A) showing that the motorcycle bearing registration No. HP-69A-0991 was owned by Kuldeep Singh. Kuldeep Singh (PW13) made a statement that his motorcycle was stolen and he had reported the matter to the police. ASI-Subhash Chand filed an application (Ext. PW16/H) before PP, Jogon and obtained the complaint of Kuldeep Singh (Ext. PW16/J). He also seized a copy of the registration certificate (Ext. PW13/A) vide seizure memo (Ext. PW13/B). He obtained a copy of the FIR (Ext. PW16/P) regarding the theft of the motorcycle. He found that the registration plate used by the motorcycle was forged, so he recorded the statement of the original owner of the vehicle bearing registration No. HP-12A- 2732. After the completion of further investigations, Shamsher Singh (PW21) filed a supplementary charge sheet in the Court.