The High Court · 2025

The State of Telanagana, rep. By its Public prosecutor, High Court of Telanagana Hyderabad. ...RespondenUComplainant Petition under Section 480 & 483 of BNSS praying that in the circumstances stated in the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition, the High Court may be pleased to enlarge the Petitioner/Accused No.'l in Crime no,17 of 2025 of Excise Balanagar bail on such condition or conditions. This Petition coming on for hearing,upon perusing the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition and upon hearing the arguments of Sri M. Amarnath , Advocate for the Petitioner and Sri D. Arun Kumar, the Additional Public Prosecutor on behalf of the Respondent-State. The Court made the following: ORDER THE HONOURABLE SMT. JUSTICE K. St. JANA CRIMINAL PETITION No.1O489 of 2O 15 ORDER: Seeking the Court to enlarge the petil i rncr who is arrayed as accused No.1 in Crime No.17 of 2025, ,f Prohibition and Excise Police Station, Balanagar, on bail, thc prescnl Criminal Petition is hied.

2. The brief facts of the case are that on 21 03.2025 the STFC team, Hyderabad, on receiving reliable information, conducted a raid at the place shown in Colur rn No.2 and detected illegal sale and possession of dq' ganja. The contraband of 115 kg of dry ganja was sciz:d, and the accused were arrested under cover of a panch: nama in the presence of panchas. A case was registered vid,: Crirne No.17 of 2025, and the original case papers along wit: the accused were produced before the trial Court for judicial - .mand.

3. Heard Sri M. Amarnath, learned counsel Lppearing on beha,lf of the petitioner as well as Sri D. Arun Kr- mar, learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing on tr rhalf of the respondent - State. ) sKs,J Crl.P.No.1(Xt9 of 2()25

4. karned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petrtloner was arraigned as Accused No.l in the crime arld was a permanent resident of Kothagudem District. He had no criminal antecedents, was innocent, and was a law_abiding citizen. It was alleged by the Investigating Agency that on 24.03.2025 at about 2:3O p.m., the STF team, along with panchas, conducted a raid near Sri Saingar Colony Kaman, at the X Roads, JNTU Metro Pillar No.7O7 towards KpHB Colony, Hyderabad, where the accused was found in an Innova car. with 115 kg of dry ganja. Based on this, a case was registered, and the petitioner was arrested. He further submitted that as per the remand case diary, the petitioner was falsely implicated and had no role in the offence. Therefore, he pnayed the Court to grant bail to the petitioner by ailowing this criminal petition.

5. On the other hand, learned Additional public prosecutor opposed the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner stating that the petitioner is drug peddlers. He further submitted that the investigation is in progress and if the petitioner is released on bail, at this stage, he may tamper { 3 SI<S,J Crl.I. o.1O4a9 of 2025 with the evidence and may threaten the witnesse s . Hence, he prayed thc Court to dismiss the criminal petition.

6. This Court, considering submissions madr: I_ry both the parties and reviewing the material available on record, it is noted that the contention of the petitioner that t rc. petitioner is in jail since 24.03.2025 more than 150 days. [owever, the learned Additional Public Prosecutor opposes lllr I citing that the seized contraband is commercial quantity. A1 _his stage, it is pertinent to note Section 37 of the NDpS Act w,hich reads as under: "37. Offences to be cognizable and non-bai r ble. (l) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, \973 (2 of lg7a, @) every offence punishable under this Act shal be cogr.riz.able; (b) no person accused of an offence punishabtr for Ifoffences under section 19 or section 24 or sec .ion 27 A and also for offences involving comm : cial quantity] shall be released on bail or on his rwn bond unless (i) the Public opportunity to rclease, and Prosecutor oppose the has been giverr an application for s rch (ii) where the Public prosecutor opposes application, the court is satished tllat therr: reasonable grounds for believing that he is; ( 1 \ t 4 sKs", Crl.P.l{o.10489 of 2O2S guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail (2) The limitations on granting of bail specified in clause (b) of sub-section (1) are rn addition to the limitations under the Code of Criminal procedure, 1973 (2 of 197 4) or arry other law for the time being in force on granting of bail."

7. In view thereof, Section 37 of the NDpS Act mandates that offences involving commercial quantities be non_bailable, requiring reasonable grounds to believe the accused is not guilty and unlikely to commit further offences rvhile on bail. Hence, since the allegations levelled against the petitioner are serious in nature and there are no changed circumstarces in the case, this Court is not satisfied that conditions for granting bail under Seclion 37 are met. Therefore, the criminal petition lacks merit a_nd the same is liable to be dismissed.

8. Accordingly, this Criminal petition is dismissed Miscellaneous applications, if any pending, shall stand closed //TRUE COPY// SD/. C. DEEPIKA ASSISTANT REGISTRAR (? sEcTtoN oFF|CER To, '1. The Station House Officer, p.S. Excise, Balanagar. 2. One CC to Sri M Am_arnath , Advocate tOpUCl 3 Two ccs to the pubric prosecutor, High court tor t-tre state of rerangana, 4. Two CD Copies Hyderabad. [OUT] EPR/gh c\ =.:.%= '-r -, -_;;=PPJ HIGH COURT DATED:0810912025 ORDER CRLP.No.10489 ot 2025 hc. '( ( ..\: ) ,/s-, ? I JAN 2O2E \ \(r,i\ i tir 'Farc.t':^'lu' v\ DISMISSING THE CRL.PETITION. 0