The 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 Porika Vikas Raj, Advocate for the Petitioner and the Additional Public Prosecutor (TG/AP) on behalf of the Respondent No.1. The Court made the following Order:- r' I THE HONOURABLE SMT JUSTICE K. SUJANA CRIMINAL PETITION No'15878 of 2024 ORDER: The present Criminal Petition is f-rled praf ing this Court to enlarge the petitioner rvho is arrayed as accused No. 1 in Crime No.441 of 2024 registered for the offences punishable undcr Sections 318(a) of the Bharatiya N'vaya Sanhitha, 2023 (fot short 'BNS'), Section 8(c) read with' 2O(b) (ii) (c) ancl 27 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (for short 'NDPS ActJ in the Court of the XV Metropolitan Magistrate , at Rachakonda, Ibrahimpatnam, on bail'

2. The brief facts of the case are that on 27 O8"2O24, the seizing officer received credible information r<:gerrding the transportation of ganja from Visakhapatnam' Acting swiftll', the Officer interce pted two individuals travcling in a Swift car bearing the registration number MH-O3-AM-

9368. Upon searching the vehicle, the Officer discovered and seizerl a substantial quantiq' of ganja, weighing 59'5 SKS,J C.l.P.No.l5A7a oI2024 kilograms. The interception and seizure u.ere carried out in accordance with the appiicablc laws and regulations, and, the petitioner along with other accused, were subsequently taken into custody in connection with the offence. The Police registered criminal case against the petitioner for the offences as alleged, arraying him as accused No. 1. Aggrieved thereby, this Criminal petition is filed.

3. Heard Sri P.Vikas Raj, learned counsel for petitioner, and Sri Syed Yasar Mamoon, learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for respondent - State-

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner has be en languishing in juclicial custocly for over 115 days, despite being entirely innocent and having no connection whatsoever to the alleged offence of transporting 59.5 kgs of ganja. He contended thal the police aver to have received credible inlormation about the transportation just two hours before the arrest, but 1, 3 ShS. l Crl P No t5878 of 2O21 conveniently failed to mention the source of the information or the Officer who received it, raising s(:rious doubts about the authenticity of the information ' He further contended that the police alleged that the accused exchange(l number plates, but did not book a r:ase for illegal number piate usage, nor did they seize the number plates, which amounts to be a glaring omission and a clear indication of the fabricated nature of the allegations. He asserted that the Pe trtloner ls d respectable familY, ['ith larv-abidirtg citizen from a prior involvement in any criminal activity, and is u'illing to furnish trustworthy sureties to secure his release on bail. He asserted that the petitioner is suffering ivith HIV/AIDS since 2O09 and requires proper mcdicarion for the same, ancl that his parents are also suffering from serious health issues, and that he is their only nreans of support, and that they will be put to unduc hardship if he is kePt in judicial custody. Therefore, Pral'ed this the petitioner bY allorving this Court to grant bail to criminai Pctition. 4 SKS,J Crl.P.No.l5878 of 2024

5. On the other hand, learned Additional Public Prosecutor opposed the submissions madc by the learned counsel for the petitioner stating that the allegations leveled against the petitioner are ol serious nature as the contraband seized by the Police was of 59'5 Kgs' which is commercial quantity. Therefore, prayed the Court to dismiss the criminal Pet ition '

6. Having regard to the rival submissions made and on going through the material placed on record' it is noted that the limited grievance of lcarned couhsel for the petitioner is that the petitioner was falsely implicated in the case and that petitioner is no u'ay concerned with the alleged offence, whereas, it' is the specific stand of learned Additional Public Prosecutor that substantial quantity of ganja, weighing about 59'5 kgs was seized from the petltloner.

7. At this stage, it is imperativc to note that the contraband seized from the petitioner is a commercial _=_ ..\ l ) 5 SKS,.I Crl P No l5878 of2O2{ quantity. That being so, it is relevant to extract Section 37 of the NDPS Act, which reads as under: "37. Offences to be cognizable and non- bailable. -- (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure. 1973 ('2 of l97a),--(a) every offence punishable under this Act shali be cognizable; (b) no person accused of an offence punishable for 1{offences under section 19 or section 24 or section 27 A and also for offences invoh,ing commercial quantityl shall _be released on bail or on his own bond unless- (i) the Public Prosecutor has been given an opportunity to oppose the application for such relcase, and {ii) rvhere the Public Prosecutor opposes the application, the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilt_v of such offence and that he is not likelv to commit any offence rvhile on bail. (2) The limitations on granting of bail specified in clause (b) of sub section (1) are in addition \ I 5 S(S,J C( l.P.No. 151378 of 202'l to the limitations under the Code oi Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 ol I97 4l or an,v othei iaiv for the time being in force on granting of bail "

8. ln view thereof, it is clear that Sect.ion 37 of the NDPS Act mandates that offences involving commercial qllantities be non-bailable, requiring reasonable grounds to believe the accused is not guiity a nd unlikely to commit further offences while on bail' Ciiven the serious allegations against the petitioncr, this Court is not satished that conditions for granting bail under Section 37 are met. Therefore, the criminal petition lacks merit anci the same is liab1e to be dismissed' () Accorciingly, this Criminal Petitiorl is tlismisscd Ivlisceilaneous applications, il any pcntling,' shall sl:r ncl r:losed- I To, //TRUE COPY// Sd/. T. JA SREE ASSISTANT RE STRAR I SECTION OFFICER

1. The XV Additional Metropolitan Magistrate at lbrahimpatnam' Cyberabad' 2. The Station House Officer, lbrahimpatnam P S'' Rachakonda. 3.TwoCCstothePublicProsecutor,HighcourtforthestateofTelanganaat Hyderabad [OUT].

4. One CC to Sri Porika Vikas Raj, Advocate IOPUC] 5. Two CD CoPies vcrsh E- HIGH COUFIT DATED:02 rc1n025 ORDER CRLP.No.15878 of 2024 o3 Tl! i .,; .i 2O FEB 2W o I .? DISMISSING THE CRLP € od'I Vr rfl,lr