- (1.)The appellant here in this appeal calls in question the judgment of conviction and the order of sentence passed by the learned Addl. Sessions Judge-cum-Special Judge, Malkangiri in Criminal Trial No. 78 of 2003. The learned Addl. Sessions Judge-cum-Special Judge, Malkangiri found the appellant guilty of the charge under Section 20(b)(i) of the N.D.P.S. Act and sentenced him to undergo R.I. for ten years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,00,000/- in default to undergo a further R.I. for two years more.
(2.)The prosecution case against the appellant is as under :
On receipt of a reliable information on 16.9.2003 at about 9A.M., that a person putting on a blue shirt and blue jean pant was transporting contraband ganja in Motu-Rajdhani bus, the Police staff of Malkangiri Police Station headed by Shri S.A.K. Nayak, S.I. of Police proceeded to Malkangiri bus stand to ascertain the correctness of the information. On their arrival, they found the Motu-Rajdhani bus arrived in the bus stand and when they were waiting in the bus stand near the entrance gate of the bus which was a Govt. bus bound for Bhubaneswar, they found the appellant alighting from the bus along with two air bags and one attache, where from pungent smell of ganja was emitting out. On suspicion, the police staff detained the appellant and made interrogation of him about the contents of the said bags and attache to which the appellant is said to have disclosed that the same was containing contraband ganja which he was transporting to Bhubaneswar and also gave his identity to be Pintu Biswas of village MPV-37, P.S. Kalimela in the district of Malkangiri. The appellant thereafter was detained. The independent witnesses were called to the spot including an Executive Magistrate, namely, Santosh Kumar Pradhan, the then Addl. Tahaaildar Malkangiri (P.W.6) and in their presence the search of the bags and attaches was conducted and on such search, it was found that the same was containing ganja. On personal search of the appellant by the S.I., S.A.K. Nayak, it was found that the appellant was having a bus ticket and cash of Rs. 30/-. Thereafter the weighment of the ganja was taken by the S.I., Shri S.A.K. Nayak through a weighman whose service was fetched and on such weighment they found the attache containing 10 K.G. of ganja and two air bags each containing 7.5 K.G. and 6 K.G. of ganja respectively. The S.I. thereafter took two representative samples of 24 grams from each of the bulk and then gave the identification mark to the bulk of ganja keeping it in the respective containers as well as the representative samples were collected and kept in different polythene covers and identification marks were put on them and all the aforesaid were then sealed in presence of the witnesses, completing other formalities such as putting paper ships inside the same having the signatures of the witnesses including the Executive Magistrate, weighman and the appellant. As the appellant was found transporting the said ganja without any authority in violation of Section 8(c) of the N.D.P.S. Act, he was arrested by the S.I. and thereafter, brought to the Police Station. An F.I.R. was drawn by the S.I. of Police pursuant to which he drew the formal F.I.R. and registered the case and the investigation of the case was taken up by him. During the course of investigation, the S.I. forwarded the material objects along with the samples to the learned Special Judge-cum-Sessions Judge, Koraput along with the appellant and as per his direction, the samples were sent for chemical examination and on completion of investigation, he placed charge sheet against the appellant. The case of the appellant being transferred to the file of the learned Addl. Sessions Judge-cum-Special Judge, Malkangiri, the appellant faced this trial being charged under Section 20(b)(i) of the N.D.P.S. Act.

(3.)The plea of the appellant is one of complete denial and false implication.