- (1.) The appellant preferred the instant appeal assailing the Judgment and Order of conviction passed in Case No.N-62 of 2006 by the learned Judge, Special Court under N.D.P.S. Act, Barasat, North 24 Parganas on 10th March, 2010 convicting the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 18 (b) of the N.D.P.S. Act. He is sentenced to suffer Rigorous Imprisonment for 10 (ten) years and also to pay a fine of Rs.1,00,000/- in default to suffer Rigorous Imprisonment for 6 (six) months.
(2.) The case made out by the prosecution may be summed up thus. On 29.03.2006, acting on a specific information which was duly reduced into writing and intimated to one superior officer and on getting movement order, the batch of officers and staff of N.C.B. (E.Z.U) Kolkata reached at the crossing of Awalsiddhi more (Chowmatha) on National Highway 34 at about 15.50 hours and stationed there. At about 16.00 hours being shown by the informer, the officers spotted one person standing at the crossing having a multi coloured nylon shopping bag in his right hand and the officers then encircled that person and disclosed their identity before him, while that person disclosed his name as Haniph Seikh. Thereafter, the officers expressed their intention to search that nylon shopping bag as the officers got specific information that a good quantity of opium was kept inside that bag. Then the officers called two independent persons from the on-lookers as independent witnesses to witness the search. Then the accused voluntarily handed over that bag to N.C.B. officers and confessed that there is opium inside that bag. Before conducting search of that bag, the N.C.B. officers offered themselves to be searched by the accused, but he declined to do so. Thereafter the said bag was searched in presence of the accused person and the independent witnesses wherefrom one polythene packet containing blackish brown coloured sticky substance believed to be opium was recovered and on spot testing with the drug detection kit which responded positive to the test of opium and on weighment of the recovered substance it was a round 3 kgs gross. Accordingly investigation started and after completion of the investigation charge under Section 18(b) of N.D.P.S. Act has been framed against accused Haniph Seikh to which he pleaded not guilty and hence, the trial started and after completion of trial the learned Judge found the accused person guilty and convicted as aforesaid.
(3.) In course of trial, the prosecution examined as many as 5 (five) witnesses in all and proved several documents and material exhibits, whereas the accused has examined only one D.W. in his support.;