- (1.) HEARD Sri O.P. Singh, Senior Advocate assisted by Sri Rajiv Lochan Shukla, learned counsel for the appellant and Sri N.D. Rai, learned AGA for the State.
(2.) THE appellant Ashok Kumar Singh @ Gopi Singh is aggrieved by his conviction under section 20(b)(1) (B) of NDPS Act and imposed sentenced of ten years rigorous imprisonment with Rs. 1,00,000/ - fine, the default sentence being one year further simple imprisonment recorded by the Additional Sessions Judge / Fast Track Court No. 4, Kanpur Nagar vide impugned judgment and order dated 27.10.2007 passed by Additional Sessions Judge / Fast Track Court No. 4, Kanpur Nagar.
(3.) STATED briefly, prosecution allegations against the appellant, as extracted from the recovery memo Ex. Ka -3 and chick F.I.R. Ex. Ka -8 and testimonies of fact witnesses were, that on 29.08.2006 informant S.I. Dinesh Chandra, PW -2, Sri Shesh Kumar Mishra, PW -1, and S.I. Shesh Kumar Shukla started for routine checking duty at 21.15 P.M. vide rapat No. 49. When the members of the police party reached Shilpi Tiraha in Bhanna Purwa tri crossing they met constable Indrabhan and Narendra Singh who were patrolling near Bhanna Purwa and assembled near the shop of Hazi Bhasi of Daya Swaroop near plot no. 1 to 6. In the middest of their talks, the members of the police party noticed that two persons who were coming from the side of Sangeet tri crossing upon sighting the police party stopped, turned around and started walking briskly which aroused their suspicion, whereupon they ordered them to stop and threw torch light on them on which they started running, whereupon the members of the police party chased and over powered them after using necessary force at about 10.40 P.M. The intercepted persons disclosed their names as Ashok Singh @ Gopi Singh and Subhash Singh @ Tantan. Upon being asked about the reason for their trying to run away on spotting, the police party the two suspects informed the police party that they had Charas in their possession. Thereafter they were asked to get themselves searched before a Magistrate or a Gazetted Officer to which they did not agree and consented to be searched by the members of the police party. The police personnel thereafter conducted inter se search of each other and prepared two separate consent letters and obtained the signatures of the suspects thereon. The search of the appellant Ashok Singh's green colour bag held by the appellant in his right hand resulted in recovery of four packets of Charas, wrapped in a Khaki colour polythene sheet. The search of the other suspect Subhash Singh @ Tantan led to recovery of 315 bore pistol and two live cartridges and one slice Charas like piece from the right pocket of his trousers. The accused after they failed to furnish any licence to possess charas were informed that they had committed an offences under the NDPS Act and the Arms Act and thereafter taken into custody. PW -1 endeavoured to join independent witness. With great difficulty one Jai Narayan Singh Bhadoriya agreed to give evidence on behalf of the prosecution. The recovered weapon, cartridges and contraband were packed separately and sealed. Two samples of hundred grams each were drawn from Charas recovered from the two accused and packed in separate pieces of cloths and sealed on the spot. The specimen of seal was also prepared. The recovery memo was written by S.I. Shesh Kumar Shukla on the dictation of PW -1 and read over to the members of the police party and the witness whose signatures were also obtained thereon. The entire exercise was done under the torch light and electrical light available on the spot. The quantity of Charas recovered from the appellant upon being weighed by the scale arranged by constable Indrabhan was found to be about two kilograms whereas the weight of Charas recovered from the accused Subhash Singh @ Tantan was estimated to be about three hundred grams. On the basis of the recovery memo Case Crime No. 106 of 2006 under section 18/20 of NDPS Act, State Vs. Ashok was registered against the appellant at Police Station -Chaman Ganj, District -Kanpur Nagar. The matter was investigated by S.I. Rehmat Ullah Khan who prepared the site plan of the place of occurrence, recorded the statements of the witnesses and send the sealed packet containing sample drawn from the Charas recovered from the appellant to forensic lab, Lucknow along with docket and obtained the report of the forensic expert Ex. Ka -6 and after completing the investigation laid charge -sheet against the appellant. The case was committed for trial to Additional Sessions Judge / Fast Track Court No. 4, Kanpur Nagar and registered as Sessions Trial No. 1080 of 2006.;