PRAHALAD SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE sole appellant has preferred this appeal against the judgment and order dated 30.9.2003/3. 11.2003 passed by Special Judge, Buxar in N.D.P.S. Case No. 10/2000 whereby he has been convicted for the offence under Section 21(C) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, hereinafter referred to as the 'N.D.P.S. Act ' and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 12 years and also to pay a fine of Rs. 1 lac and in default of payment of fine to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years.

(2.) KARUNA Kant Bose, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Buxar is the informant in the case. He recorded the fardbeyan on his own statement on 11.6.2000 at about 5.45 p.m. at the Line hotel of Mangala Rai at village Saranja that he received confidential information from the Superintendent of Police, Buxar that in the Line hotel of Mangala Rai some miscreants have assembled with heroin and are planning to conceal the On the af6resaid information he organised the raiding party of which Sub -Inspector, of Police, Vinay Kumar Sharma, Assistant Sub -Inspector of Police, Tirtharaj Tiwari of Buxar Police Station and armed forces were members, They proceeded at about 3 p.m. and reached the hotel of Mangala Rai at about 4 p.m. They surrounded the hotel and in presence of two independent witnesses, namely, Lal Saheb Upadhyaya and Ghanshyam Choudhary the raiding party gave their search. He disclosed to the owner of the hotel the reason for search and enquired whether he had any objection which he denied and stated that he had faith in them and there was no need of a Magistrate. In the hotel 15 -16 persons were sitting. They started searching the persons sitting there. In course of search one person disclosed his name as Prahlad Singh, the appellant. On search a plastic water bottle was recovered from him. The weight of the water bottle was abnormal. He enquired about the contents of the water bottle from Prahlad Singh who disclosed that 400 gram heroin a polythene packet has been kept in the bottle. In presence of the independent witnesses the water bottle was opened and gray colour powder was found in three pockets kept in the water bottle. The said packets were marked as A, B and C. Prahlad Singh disclosed that he brought the heroin with the help of his friend Dan Singh of Rajasthan for selling the same. His friend ran away after seeing the police. The seized packets were weighed by the goldsmith and 402 gram heroin was found. From each packet two samples of about 5 gram heroin were prepared and kept in polythene and thereafter the samples were kept in 3 containers and were sealed. The seizure list was prepared on which the independent witnesses put their signatures. Prahlad Singh was asked as to whether he would like to go to a Magistrate which he denied. He kept the seized articles and the samples himself for producing the same in the Court and keeping it in the malkhana. A copy of the search and seizure list was also handed over to the accused Prahlad Singh. The place of occurrence i.e. the village Saranja is within the jurisdiction of Rajpura Police Station and as such information was given to the Officer -in -Charge of Rajpura Police Station through the choukidar. He thereafter proceeded with the accused and the seized articles for further enquiry with respect to co -accused Dan Singh. The fardbeyan was read over to accused Prahlad Singh and he put his signature on the fardbeyan. On the aforesaid fardbeyan. formal FIR was drawn, investigation was taken up by Manoranjan Bharti, the Officer -in -charge of Rajpura Police Station, on completion of investigation charge -sheet was submitted, on receipt of charge -sheet cognizance was taken and the appellant was put on trial. A supplementary charge -sheet was also submitted against one Kamlesh Rai who was discharged by the then Special Judge, Buxar by order dated 29.6.2001 holding that there was no legal evidence against him. However, the appellant was convicted as stated above.

(3.) THE prosecution in support of its case examined six witnesses. PWs 2 and 4 are seizure list witnesses and they have been declared hostile. PW 5 is member of the raiding party and PW 6 is the informant. PW 1 is Assistant Director of Forensic Science Laboratory who proved the report, Ext. 1. PW 3 is the Investigating Officer.