Suman Kumar vs State Of Himachal Pradesh

Virender Singh, J

Applicant-Suman Kumar has filed the present application, under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as ‘CrPC’), for releasing him on bail, during the pendency of trial, in case FIR No. 3 of 2023, dated 6th January, 2023, registered with Police Station Darlaghat, District Solan, H.P., under Sections 20 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (hereinafter referred to as ‘NDPS Act’).

The applicant has sought the bail, on the ground, that he is an innocent person and has falsely been implicated, in the present case, as he has nothing to do with the commission of the alleged offences, for which, he has been arrested by the police.

Apart from this, the learned counsel appearing for the applicant, has given certain undertakings, on behalf of the applicant, for which, the applicant is ready to abide by, in case, released on bail, during the pendency of the trial.

When put on notice, police filed the status report, disclosing therein that on 5th January, 2023, at about 10.30 p.m., SI/SHO Police Station Darlaghat, alongwith other police official, was on patrolling/picketing duty near Danoghat at National Highway 205, he noticed one LP truck, bearing registration No. HP-64A-4001, being driven by its driver, coming from Darlaghat side and was signalled to stop. Besides the driver, one another person was found sitting in the vehicle, who, on seeing the police, tried to hide one khaki coloured polythene packet, kept over the dashboard. On seeing, it appeared that some stick shaped substance was inside the packet, upon which, a suspicion got developed in the mind of the Investigating Officer that there might be some objectionable item in the packet, upon which, in order to search the packet and truck, two persons, namely Vinod Kumar and Manglesh Thakur, who were travelling in pick up No. HP-23B-2699, were requested to be the independent witnesses. After associating the above two persons, as independent witnesses, the persons sitting in the truck were inquired. On inquiry, the person sitting on the driver seat, disclosed his name as Suman Kumar (applicant) and the person sitting on the conductor seat disclosed his name as Manoj Kumar. The truck was searched in the presence of the independent witnesses. During search of the truck, stick shaped and ball shaped black coloured substance was found enclosed in khaki coloured plastic tape over the conductor side dashboard, which was disclosed to be ‘charas’ by the truck driver, as well as, the person sitting on the conductor seat. On smelling and on the basis of experience, the recovered substance was found to be charas, which, on weighment, was found to be 427 grams. The contraband, so recovered, was taken into possession. Accused persons were arrested. Other codal formalities were completed and the contraband was sent to SFL Junga, for chemical analysis.

Apart from this, it has been submitted that no other case has been registered against the applicant-Suman Kumar.

On all these submissions, a prayer has been made to dismiss the bail application.

Heard.

Admittedly, the contraband allegedly recovered from the possession of the applicant, in this case, does not fall within the definition of ‘commercial quantity’, as such, rigors of Section 37 of the NDPS Act are not applicable, in this case.

Once, it has been held that rigors of Section 37 of the NDPS Act are not applicable, in this case, then the presumption of innocence is still available to the applicant, as the bail application cannot be rejected as a matter of punishment. Pre-trial punishment is prohibited under the law. The trial of the accused will take sufficient long time and no useful purpose would be served by keeping him in judicial custody.

At the time of deciding the bail application, the Court should refrain from discussing the case of the prosecution in detail, as, the same would cause prejudice to the case of the prosecution or the defence.

Considering all these facts, this Court is of the view that the bail application is liable to be allowed and is accordingly allowed.

The applicant is ordered to be released on bail in case FIR No. 135 of 2022, dated 26th September, 2022, registered with Police Station Dhalli, District Shimla, H.P., under Sections 21 and 29 of the NDPS Act, on his furnishing personal bail bond, in the sum of ₹ 50,000/- , with one surety of the like amount, to the satisfaction of learned CJM/JMFC, Solan/JMFC, Arki, or any other JMFC on duty in District Solan. This order, however, shall be subject to the following conditions:

a) He shall make himself available for the purpose of interrogation, if so required and regularly attend the trial Court on each and every date of hearing and if prevented by any reason to do so, seek exemption from appearance by filing appropriate application;

b) He shall not tamper with the prosecution evidence nor hamper the investigation of the case in any manner whatsoever;

c) He shall not make any inducement, threat or promises to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade them from disclosing such facts to the Court or the Police Officer; and

d) He shall not leave the territory of India without the prior permission of the Court.

Any of the observations, made hereinabove, shall not be taken as an expression of opinion, on the merits of the case, as these observations, are confined, only, to the disposal of the present bail application.

It is made clear that the respondent-State is at liberty to move an appropriate application, in case, any of the bail conditions, is found violated by the applicant.

Applicant may produce a downloaded copy of the order, passed by the Court, before the learned CJM/JMFC, Solan/JMFC, Arki, or any other JMFC on duty in District Solan, and the said Court shall not insist for the certified copy of order, rather, passing of order can be verified from the web-page of this Court.