Prosecutor High Court · 2025

This Petition coming on for hearing,upon perusing the Memorandum of _ Grounds of Criminal Petition and upon hearing the arguments of Sri A PRABHAKAR RAO, Advocate for the Petitioner and Sri Syed yasar Mamoon, Addl. Public Prosecutor on behalf of the Respondent; The Court made the following: ORDER , : t, l, !: I THE HONONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE J. SREENTVAS RAO - CRIMINAL PETITION No. 3132 of 2o25 ORDER: This Criminal Petition is hled under Sections 480 and 483 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (hereinafter referred to, as 'BNSS) seeking bail to the petitioner/ accused No.9 in Crime No.42 of 2024 ot Prohibition and Excise Police Station, Narayanguda, Hl,derabad. registercd for the offence under Section 8(c) read with 2O(b)(ii)(C) o[ Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Siubstances Act, 1985 (for short, 'NDPS Act').

2. Heard Mr. A- Prabhakar Rao, learned coun sel for the petitioner, and Mr S.,'ecl Y.rsar Mamoon, Iearned Additiorral Public Prosecutor appearing lor the respondent - State.

3. Tlre briel' lircts ol the case are that on 17 .72.2024 at about 7. i 5 p.m., thc ['rrihibition :rnd Excise lnspector of STF C-Team, Hyderabad, condllcte.l a r:rid in lront of Saibaba Temple Lane, beside Victoria Ground, Chadcrgtiat, Hyderabad, and they allegedly found accused Nos.I to .l in posscssion of 2O.5 kilograms of ganja, which r.r,as reporrcclll llrouqlrt l'ro rn accused Nos.S and 7. On enquiry, accused Nos. I to zl u'ere conlessed that the ganja was b€ing transported from Andhra-()rissa bordcr to Hr.derabad under the instructions ol accused a Nos.7 and 8 and they brought the dry ganja on instructions of accused Nos.9 and 10 and they are going to transport the above dry ganja to accused Nos.i1 [o 13. The police seized the contraband under the cover of a panchanama and registered Crime No.42 of 2024. 4 . Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that entire allegations are levelled against accused Nos.1 to 4 and the contraband was also seized from them. The petitioner was falsely implicated in the crime. The petitioner was arrested on 2O.O1.2O25 and since then she has been in judicial custody. The petitioner shall abide by the conditions, u'hich are going to be imposed by this Court, and she is readl'to coopcrative with the investigation. Hence, the petitioncr mav be enlarged on bail.

5. Per contra, learned Additional Public Prosecutor submittcd that thc contraband that was seized is 2O.5 kgs, which is commercial quantity- The investigation is not yet completed. The petitioncr committed thc very same offences ald she was accused in 28 cases. Hence, at this stage, the petitioner is not entitled for grant of bail.

6. Having considered the rival submissions made by respective partics and after perusal of the materia-l available on record, pnma facie it re veals that thc police seized 20.5 kgs. of contrabancl, u hich is commercial quantity. According to the learned Additional Public : ! \ I t I t I I l i 3 1 Prosecutor, as on today, the investigation is not yet completed and the petitioner is a regular offender and 28 crimirLal cases were pending against her. At this stage, it is pertinent to note Section 37 of the NDPS Act, r,r,hich reads as under: ) ) (l) (al (b) (2t Offcnccs to be cognizable and non-bailable., _ Not\\'it hstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procerture, tg7312 ot l9T4),__ ever] offence punishable under this Act shall be cognizable; no person accused ofan offence punishable for l[offences under sccrion ig or section 24 or section 2ZA and atso for oflenccs inr ol'".ing commercial quantityl shall be released on barl or on lls orr n boncl unless- (i) rllc PLrtJllc prosecrrtor has been given an opportLtnrt\ to oppose the applicaticn for such relcasc, altcl (ii) \\trere llre I,ublic prosecutor ol)poses the .t1>ltlrc.lrrron. the coLLrt is satisfied that there ;rre rcirsorrablc grounds for believing that he is Irot gLlilt\ oI sLlch oftence and that he is not llkel\ to ( ()rnrnit arr\ offence while on bail. 'lhc Irrrrrratrols ()r granrrn!. of bail specifie(l in clause (b) of srrir sr'< r r,rr I il .rr(, Ln .1(l(lrLlon Lo the Iimitations under the Code r)l Cr unurirl l,ror.ecjurc, lg73 (,2 ol 1974) or any other Iau lbl rlre rirrrc lx ing in lbrce on granting of bail."

7. In vreu rht:r-r:ol, Section 37 of the NDF,S Act mandates that offcnces itrvolvrng cornntcrcial quelntit-ies be rLon_bailable, requiring 4 reasonable grounds to believe the accused is not guilty and unlikely to commit further offences while on bail. Hence, since the allegations levelled against the petitioner are serious in nature, this Court is not satished that conditions for granting bail under Section 37 are met. Therefore, the criminal petition lacks merit and the same is tiable to be dismissed. 8 Accordingly, this Criminal petition is dismissed. Misccllaneous applications, pending if any, shall stand closed //TRUE COPY// s D/. L LAKSHMI BABU DEPUTY REGISTRAR SECTION OFFICER l To, I Il" I Addr. Sessions Judge, Hyderabad 2. The Superintendent, Chanchalguda, Central 3. The Station House Officer, N"riyrnrgrd" E Prison, Hyderabad rohibition & Excise p.S., Hyderabad One CC to SRt A pRABH, iI!ffi i:,',J'i'5H,ffi L3A:#3x"3sl..,r"1t,?l,,o"oro,.,

4. b- M/ S ! I I l I t I i I J i i ! ! E I EI ! I I. HIGH COURT DATED:1110312025 ) '.,i-,-',*iG*1.: 0 4 ,luli Z0Z5 1{( 2: .A a 4 ia r1!; '|. .k ORDER CRLP.No.3132 ot 2025 DISMISSING THE CRIMINAL PETITION