Court granted bail to the Petitioner charged under NDPS Act (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) : High Court of Delhi

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI NAMAN SHARMA Reserved on: February 24 2022 Decided on: March 04 2022 BAIL APPLN. 3673 2021 ….. Petitioner Represented by: Mr. Anurag Bindal Mr. Ankur Gupta and Mr. B. Khan Advocates. STATE THROUGH NARCOTICS CONTROL ..... Respondent Represented by: Mr. Rajesh Manchanda Special P.P. for the NCB. HON BLE MS. JUSTICE MUKTA GUPTA MUKTA GUPTA J. By this petition the petitioner seeks regular bail in case No. VIII 46 DZU 2021 under Sections 8(c) 20 22 29 of the NDPS Act on a complaint filed by the respondent NCB. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that even as per the statement recorded under Section 67 of the NDPS Act which is inadmissible in evidence the best case of the respondent is that the petitioner used to consume Ganja in the year 2017 and the payments thereof were made in the year 2021. Even as per the investigation the group was created by Mohd. Aslam and Parichay Arora and merely because the petitioner was also made an Admin of the group the liability of the entire group cannot be fastened on BAIL APPLN. 3673 2021 the petitioner. Even from the transactions of payments made to Mohd. Aslam and Neil Singhvi by the petitioner at best four or five transactions have been shown wherein amounts transferred are ₹11 000 ₹5700 ₹1000 ₹2000 etc. The petitioner is not a drug trafficker. Though not admitting even if at some stage the petitioner consumed the drugs the same would not amount to dealing in a drug trafficking racket. He further states that the similarly placed co accused namely Devesh Vasa has been granted bail by this Court and Aashray Pandey has been granted bail by the learned Special Court and hence on parity the petitioner be also granted bail. The petitioner was working after completing his studies at Kolkata when he was picked up by the officers of the respondent and implicated in this case. The complaint has been filed and the petitioner is no more required for investigation. Learned counsel for the respondent states that in view of the embargo under Section 37 of the NDPS Act no case for grant of bail to the petitioner is made out as there is every possibility that on being released on bail the petitioner will again indulge in same kind of activities and the petitioner being a part of the larger drug network his role cannot be segregated from the other accused. Case of the prosecution in nutshell is that on the basis of an information Guhan Sarvothaman was intercepted at the IGI Airport on 4th August 2021. On his search 30 gms. of ganja and 0.45 gms. of Ecstasy were recovered. In the interrogation he revealed about his friend Rahul Mishra his address and the possibility of recovery of contraband from his house. Search was made at the house of Guhan Sarvothaman at Greater Noida resulting in recovery of 1 kg of ganja and ₹15.5 lakhs in cash. Search was also made at the house of Rahul Mishra at Faridabad from where 1.05 kg of ganja was recovered. Guhan Sarvothaman further BAIL APPLN. 3673 2021 disclosed about one accused Aashray Pandey who was intercepted at Ambience Mall with a parcel containing 410 gms. of ganja. Guhan Sarvothaman also informed about one Tareena Bhatnagar who had promised to get him high quality ganja and for which she had paid a sum of ₹6 lakhs to Jasbir Singh. Thus the links of Jasbir Singh were sought to be traced and it was found that Jasbir Singh operated under the pseudo name Optims Prime and Sharadha Surana operated under the pseudo name Beanskey on Telegram App in Orient Express Group. The Orient Express Group wherein number of people were indulging in sale and purchase of narcotics was created by Parichay Arora and Mohd. Aslam and the petitioner was one of the Admins of the said social media group. On the disclosure of Jasbir Singh and Sharadha Surana search was conducted at the house of Suvashish Roy at Greater Noida from where 1.250 kgs. of Ganja 16 gms. Ecstasy pills 6 gms. Heroine 40 gms. of Charas and 130 gms. of suspected psychotropic substance in different coloured little pills were found and 39.700 gms. concentrate of cannabis and 2.530 gms. liquid cannabis from a parcel at Foreign Post Office Kolkata. One more accused Raghunath Kumar was identified who was recognized as Shopper stop on Wicket App who used to arrange narcotics drugs. According to the investigation the contraband was marketed on social media platforms and then delivered to the customers consumers through parcels. Admittedly even as per the prosecution no recovery of contraband was made from the petitioner and the only evidence against him is that he was one of the Admins of Orient express group which was created by Mohd. Aslam and Parichay Arora and that the petitioner had transferred certain sums of money. As per the statement of accounts placed on record a sum of ₹11 000 was transferred by the petitioner to Mohd. Aslam on 21st June BAIL APPLN. 3673 2021 2020 ₹5700 to Neil Singhvi on 9th October 2020. Further two transactions of ₹1000 each and a transaction of ₹2300 have been made to Parichay Arora. Even in the statement of the petitioner recorded under Section 67 of the NDPS Act which is not admissible in evidence in view of the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court reported as 4 SCC 1 Tofan Singh Vs. State of Tamil Nadu it is stated that in August 2020 during the lockdown the petitioner was looking to buy weed for his consumption through telegram thus used the keywords like ‘weeds marijuana’ when he entered into two groups where he got scammed of ₹3500 . In the same group there was a user named Chico who asked the petitioner to join another group where there was a seller with the user name Pptheplugwho sent him some weed for the first time in advance without paying him which made him believe that he was a real seller. Later Aslam and Parichay Arora started adding more people in the group and made it a group of 200 members. In the group there were 5 7 sellers who used to send weed parcels via courier services and the petitioner was one of them who used to buy for his consumption. From the facts of the complaint as noted above and even based on the statement under Section 67 of the NDPS Act and the money transactions it is evident that the petitioner was at best consuming narcotics drugs which he used to buy from the sellers in the group. Complaint has already been filed by the respondent the petitioner is in judicial custody since 4th September 2021 and is no more required for investigation. Consequently this Court deems it fit to grant bail to the petitioner. It is therefore directed that the petitioner be released on bail on his furnishing a personal bond in the sum of ₹1 lakh with two surety bonds of the like amount each subject to the satisfaction of the learned Trial BAIL APPLN. 3673 2021 Court CMM Duty Magistrate out of which one surety would be a family member of the petitioner further subject to the conditions that the petitioner will not leave the country without the prior permission of the Court concerned and in case of change of residential address and or mobile number the same will be intimated to the Court concerned by way of an affidavit. Further the petitioner will appear before the NCB office at Kolkata on the first Monday of every calendar month at 6.00 P.M. Petition is disposed of. Order be uploaded on the website of this Court. MUKTA GUPTA) MARCH 04 2022 BAIL APPLN. 3673 2021 

Summary: Petitioner was granted bail, who was charged under Section 67 of NDPS Act under certain condition held by High Court of  Delhi through the learned HON’BLE MS. JUSTICE MUKTA GUPTA in the case of NAMAN SHARMA vs STATE THROUGH NARCOTICS CONTROL BUREAU in case no. (BAIL APPLN. 3673/2021) on March 04, 2022. Facts of the case are that  counsel for the petitioner contends that as per the statement recorded under Section 67 of the NDPS Act which is inadmissible in evidence, the best case of the respondent is that the petitioner used to consume Ganja in the year 2017 and the payments thereof were made in the year 2021. According to  the investigation, the group was created by Mohd. Aslam and Parichay Arora and merely because the petitioner was also made an admin of the group, the liability of the entire group cannot be fastened on the petitioner. Even from the transactions of payments made to Mohd. Aslam and Neil Singhvi by the petitioner at best four or five transactions have been shown wherein amounts transferred are ₹11,000, ₹5700, ₹1000, ₹2000 etc. The petitioner is not a drug trafficker. Though not admitting, even if at some stage the petitioner consumed the drugs, the same would not amount to dealing in a drug trafficking racket. He further states that the similarly placed co-accused namely Devesh Vasa and Aashray Pandey has been granted bail by the learned Special Court and hence, on parity  the petitioner should also be granted bail. The complaint has been filed and the petitioner is no more required for investigation as he was working after completing his studies at Kolkata when he was picked up by the officers of the respondent and implicated in this case. Learned counsel for the respondent states that in view of the embargo under Section 37 of the NDPS Act, no case for grant of bail to the petitioner is made out as there is every possibility that on being released on bail, the petitioner will again indulge in same kind of activities and the petitioner being a part of the larger drug network, his role cannot be segregated from the other accused. On this the learned counsel for petitioner states that on the basis of an information, Guhan Sarvothaman was intercepted at the IGI Airport on 4th August 2021. On his search, 30 gms. of ganja and 0.45 gms. of Ecstasy were recovered. In the interrogation, he disclosed about Rahul Mishra and Aashray Pandey thenafter they were intercepted and found with drugs and cash, and they linked to a Telegram App named Orient  Express Group in which the petitioner was one of the admin of said social media group. As per the prosecution, no recovery of contraband was made from the petitioner and the only evidence against him is that he was one of the admin of Orient express group which was created by Mohd. Aslam and Parichay Arora and that the petitioner had transferred certain sums of money. As complaint has already been filed by the respondent; the petitioner is in judicial custody since 4th September 2021 and is no more required for investigation. Consequently, the Court deems it fit to grant bail to the petitioner. It is therefore directed that the petitioner be released on bail on his furnishing a personal bond in the sum of ₹1 lakh with two surety bonds of the like amount each, and petitioner will not leave country without prior permission and will appear before the NCB office in Kolkata on the first Monday of every month at 6:00 PM.