‘Drug trafficking eats into vitals of economy’: Punjab and Haryana HC denies anticipatory bail to accused in NDPS case

The high court was hearing the anticipatory bail plea filed by one Dharminder Singh in connection with a First Information Report (FIR) registered on March 23, 2015, under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Arms Act and Foreigners Act, at the State Operation Cell, Amritsar.

As per the counsel of the petitioner, the FIR was registered merely on secret information against three people, Harpreet Singh, Bau and Ajit Singh, and the petitioner is the son of co-accused Ajit Singh. The counsel for the petitioner contended that the contraband, which consisted of 18 packets, weighing 17.828 kg of heroin, was recovered from an open piece of land and the case was registered against the petitioner and other accused merely based on extra-judicial confession, while the father of the petitioner namely Ajit Singh stands acquitted by the trial Court on March 17, 2021, holding that the prosecution could not establish that Ajit Singh was found in conscious possession of the contraband.

The state counsel, meanwhile, apprised the court that the petitioner was declared as a proclaimed offender in another FIR registered in May 2018 but the said order is under challenge before the court of additional sessions judge, Gurdaspur.

The high court, after hearing the matter, said the entire exercise that the court is expected to undertake at this stage is for the limited purpose of releasing him on bail. Thus, the focus is on the availability of “reasonable grounds” for believing that the accused was not guilty of the offences that he was charged with and that he was unlikely to commit an offence under the Act.

“As strongly asserted by the learned state counsel, there is sufficient and cogent evidence which is sufficient for this court to draw an inference that there are reasonable grounds to believe the petitioner’s active and regular involvement in drug peddling”, held the high court.

Justice Moudgil, while citing judgements of the apex court in ‘State of Madhya Pradesh versus Pradeep Sharma’, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement in ‘Gurmukh Singh vs State of Punjab’, said, “…since the recovery of contraband which is 17.828 kgs, is commercial in nature and the petitioner is involved in another case bearing FIR No.13, dated May 24, 2018, under various Acts, including the Foreigners Act and Passports Act, apart from the NDPS Act, the conduct of the petitioner is suspicious in nature and how the contraband in the instant case has been got recovered with the specific averment of the prosecution that there is every chance of the petitioner having relations with the international smuggling gang across the border.”

Even otherwise since the petitioner is in India, as has been stated by the counsel for the petitioner from November 5, 2018, no attempt on his behalf is made to date to show his bona fide to join the investigation and surrender before the court in the present case as well as in another FIR, to prove his innocence, said the high court while dismissing the bail plea.