AVTAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present appeal has been preferred under Section 36 -B of The Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (in short 'the NDPS Act') read with Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, against the judgment dated 30th July, 2009, passed by learned Special Judge, Fast Track Court, Chamba, H.P., in Sessions Trial No.6 of 2009 (State of Himachal Pradesh versus Avtar Singh), whereby learned Trial Court convicted the accused under Section 20(C) of the NDPS Act and the accused has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and also to pay a fine of Rs.1 lac and in case of default of payment of fine, he was further to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year.

(2.) IN order to adjudicate the present appeal, it is necessary to give the brief facts of the prosecution case. On 25.10.2008, a police party, headed by ASI Lal, = Naka" at Parel Pul. At about 11.30 PM, an HRTC bus, bearing No.HP -48 -4529, was coming from Chamba side and proceeding for Amritsar. Bus was stopped by the police party for checking. During the checking, two Borus and one bag were found kept on the roof of the bus. On being asked by the police party, PW -2, Ashwani Kumar, (Conductor) disclosed that Borus and bag were of the passenger j accused, occupying seat No.3, who was called on the roof of the bus where he disclosed his name as Avtar Singh and admitted that the bag and Borus belonged to him. On search, Borus and bag were found to contain Neyojas and a polythene bag kept concealed in the Neyojas. The words 'Mayur School Bag' were printed on the bag. On search of the polythene, it was found to contain black colour hard substance in the shape of sticks, smelling like Charas, on weighment it was found 4 Kgs. 800 Grams. Out of the recovered Charas, two samples of 25 grams each were separated which were separately sealed. The remaining Charas was put in that very polythene and the polythene was put in that very bag and the bag was parceled and sealed. Sample parcels and parcel containing remaining Charas were sealed with seal 'H'. Three seals were affixed on each sample parcel while six seals were affixed on parcel containing remaining Charas. Specimen seal was separately taken. NCB forms in triplicate were filled -in on the spot. Seal after use was handed over to Constable Rakesh Kumar. The recovered Charas was taken in possession by the police. The proceedings were carried out in presence of Ashwani Kumar, who was conductor on the bus and Mahesh Nand, who was driver of the said bus. Rukka was sent to the Police Station, on the basis of which, FIR No.226/2008 was recorded at Police Station Sadar, Chamba. Accused was arrested and communicated about the grounds of his arrest. ASI Lal Singh handed over all the parcels, along with sample seal, and NCB forms to Sh.R.P. Jaswal, Inspector j SHO, who re -sealed the parcels with seal 'A' and also filled in the relevant columns of the NCB forms. During personal search of the accused, a ticket was recovered from the accused and it was taken in possession by the police. One part of the sample was sent to FSL Junga, which on chemical examination, was found to be of Charas.

(3.) IN order to prove its case, the prosecution has examined as many as 12 witnesses. PW -1 Constable Rakesh Kumar (No.536), PW -2 Ashwani Kumar, PW -3 Mahesh Nath, PW -4 Constable Neeraj Kumar (No. 133), PW5 Head Constable Vijay Kumar (No.16), PW -6 Constable Mehar Singh (No.295), PW -7 Constable am Parkash (No.461), PW -8 Head Constable Kailash Chand (No.65), PW9 R.P. Jaswal, Inspector/SHO, Police Station, Chamba, PW -10 Gian Chand, HHC (No.556), PW -11 Surinder Mohan, Booking Clerk, HRTC, Chamba Depot and PW -12 Lal Singh, ASI, Police Station, Chamba, were examined.