VIRENDER GUPTA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CrlM No. 1907/2021 in Crl A(S) No. 14/2021 : Instant Criminal Appeal is directed against judgment of conviction and order dtd. 31/5/2017 rendered by the Court of learned 1 st Additional Sessions Judge, Jammu by virtue of which the appellant along with other accused namely Virender Gupta were held guilty for the commission of offences punishable under Ss. 20(b) (ii) (c) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (for short "the NDPS Act"), arising out of the FIR No. 240/2010 of Police Station Bahu Fort, Jammu, and were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of ten years and also fine in the sum of Rs.2.00 lacs each and in default of payment of fine, the appellants shall further undergo simple imprisonment for a period of three years.

(2.) Feeling aggrieved of the impugned judgment of conviction, appellant/convict has assailed it"s correctness, propriety and legality on the grounds, that as a result of miss-appreciation of facts and misapplication of law so far as the finding of the trial court relating to holding appellant guilty of having committing of offence under Sec. 20(b) (ii) (c) of NDPS Act and convicting him of the same is bad in the eyes of law, therefore, prayed that the present appeal be allowed and the judgment of learned 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Jammu be set aside.

(3.) Alongwith the appeal, appellant/convict has filed application for suspension of conviction and sentence pending the hearing of appeal, with further prayer for ordering his release on bail primarily on the ground that there is no likelihood of the appeal being heard in the near future, and in view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court wherein it has been held that when a convicted person is sentenced to a fixed period of sentence, on filing of appeal, suspension of sentence should be considered liberally unless there are exceptional circumstances; that in this case the other accused person namely Virender Gupta who had also been convicted by the trial Court had preferred an appeal against his judgment of conviction and order of sentence along with an application for suspension of sentence and the said application of the accused was allowed by this Court vide order dtd. 21/12/2018 and accused Virender Gupta had been admitted to bail, hence the case of the applicant/appellant is also on the same footing, as such, the applicant/appellant also deserves to be enlarged on bail on the basis of the law of parity.