ASHARFI YADAV Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole Appellant, Asharfi Yadav has been charged under Sections 20(c), 22(c) and 23(c) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as the "N.D.P.S. Act" for short) and has been convicted by the 2nd Additional Sessions Judge, West Champaran at Bettiah in Trial No. 3 of 2007, arising out of Lauriya P. S. Case No. 156 of 2006 under s 20(c), 22(c) and 23(c) of the N.D.P.S. Act by the judgment and order, dated 18.01.2010 / 22.10.2010. He has been sentenced for 15 years and fine of Rs. One lac under each count and in default of payment of fine to suffer Simple Imprisonment of two years.

(2.) Jawahar Prasad Yadav, Officer Incharge of Lauriya Police Station, (P.W. 16) is the informant of the Lauriya P. S. Case No. 156 of 2006. On 13th of September, 2006, he received a secret information through telephonic message that at village Lakad, Police Station-Lauria, huge quantity of Ganja has been kept by the accused persons. Immediately thereafter, he made a station diary entry and proceeded for the place of occurrence along with the members of raiding party, who were, Rudal Raut, P.W. 1; Krishna Manjhi, P.W. 2; Narendra Pandey, P.W. 3; Tej Narayan Rai, P.W. 4; Ravindra Singh, P.W. 5; Gandhi Singh, P.W. 6; Dilip Kumar Choudhary, P.W. 11; Shiv Shankar Singh, P.W. 13; and the informant himself as P.W. 16. When the raiding party reached at the place of occurrence, the Appellant Asharfi Yadav and some other persons are said to be started fleeing away from the place of occurrence. Only Asharfi Yadav was apprehended and the rest of the persons succeeded in fleeing away. A search was made and from Haldi field and the adjacent orchard, 377 Kg of Ganja, kept in 19 bags (as per First Information Report) and in 26 bags (as per the seizure memo, exhibit 1) were recovered.

(3.) So far the case of prosecution to the extent regarding recovery of 377 Kg of Ganja from the place of occurrence that is from the Haldi field and orchard is concerned, is proper, but the rest of the procedure, which has been adopted by the Investigating Officer, the informant and other Police Officials, examined as witnesses, is indicative of the fact that the mandatory provisions provided under the N.D.P.S. Act for search, seizure, sampling, storage and certification of recovered psychotropic substances or narcotic drugs, have been completely ignored. Section 42, 52A, 55 and 57 of the N.D.P.S. Act are very specific as to how the narcotic drugs or psychotropic substance can be seized, sampled and sent for chemical examination. How, the person from whose possessions such articles are recovered, should be interrogated and the search to be made. How the remaining psychotropic substances and narcotic drugs, besides the sample prepared, should be stored in Malkhana and how it should be destroyed in case there is no provision for its storage in the Malkhana.