BAHADUR SINGH Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT Bahadur Singh has assailed the judgment dated 31st December, 2005 of the trial Court, whereby he has been convicted of an offence punishable under Section 20 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and to pay a fine of Rs.1,00,000/-, in default of payment of fine to undergo imprisonment for a further period of four years.

(2.) FIRST , the prosecution version may be noticed. On 28th January, 2005, a police party headed by PW-4 HC Mohan Lal and comprising PW-1 Constable Pratap Singh, PW-2 HHC Jai Kishan, PW-

(3.) DURING the course of the hearing of the appeal, learned counsel for the appellant drew our attention to certain contradictions and discrepancies in the testimony of the witnesses of search and seizure and argued that such discrepancies and contradictions not only disproved the prosecution version but also probablized the defence plea that the appellant had not been taken into custody at the site of the alleged Naka at 7.30 p.m. but was picked up from village Fojal at 5 p.m. It was also urged by the learned counsel that the appellant had been beaten up by the police on the night intervening 29th and 30th January, 2005, when he was in their custody, after having been remanded in their custody by the concerned Magistrate and this fact also probablized the defence plea.