MANJIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal is arising out of the judgment and order dtd. 9/5/2019 and 10/5/2019 passed by the Court of learned Principal Sessions Judge, Udhampur (hereinafter to be referred as trial Court) by virtue of which the appellant has been convicted for commission of offence punishable under Ss. 8 and 15 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances(NDPS) Act and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 12 years and has also been ordered to pay a fine of Rs.1.00 lac and further in default of payment of fine, the appellant has been ordered to undergo further imprisonment for a period of one year.

(2.) The judgment has been impugned on the following grounds:

(3.) The brief facts as they emanate from the charge-sheet are that on 16/11/2016, one docket was sent by Head Constable Pradeep Kumar to Police Station, Kud in which it was stated that he along with Constable Kamaljeet Singh, Ramesh Kumar and Jeevan Singh, was performing naka duty at National Highway Kud and during checking, at around 1300 hours, one truck bearing registration No. PB08R-9348 coming from Srinagar towards Jammu was stopped. During checking, inside the tool box of the truck, 07 plastic bags covered by tarpaulin having Poppy Straw were found. The driver of the truck could not give satisfactorily reply. Both the persons disclosed their respective names as Manjit Singh S/o Darshan Singh,appellant herein (truck driver) and Sukhjeet Singh S/o Dilbagh Singh as such, both these persons have committed offences under Sec. 8 and 15 of the NDPS Act. The said docket was sent through SPO Jeevan Singh. Pursuant to this, FIR bearing No. 88/2016 dtd. 16/11/2016 was registered by Police Station, Kud, Udhampur for commission of offences under Sec. 8 and 15 of the NDPS Act. Thereafter, the investigation was conducted by Sanjay Gupta, SHO Police Station, Kud who proceeded on spot. The 07 bags were unloaded from the truck and they were weighed by electronic weighing scale brought from PW Mukhtiar Ahmed and total weight of the contraband was found to be 82 Kgs of Poppy Straw. The seizure memo was prepared on spot that was marked as Ext. I/I and also two samples of 500 grams each of Poppy Straw were separately drawn from each of the seven bags, i.e. total 14 samples were drawn and they were marked as Al, Bl, Cl, Dl, El, Fl, Gl, A2, B2, C2, D2, E2 F2 and G2. The samples were sealed on spot. The truck and tarpaulin were also seized. The seizure memo of the truck and tarpaulin were also prepared. The supurdnama with regard to the handing over of the weighing scale was also prepared on spot. The samples were resealed on 17/11/2016 by the Executive Magistrate, 1st Class Chenani and on 21/11/2016, the same were sent to the FSL. The FSL vide report dtd. 9/12/2016 opined that the seized substance was Poppy Straw (Papaver Somniferum).