Amit Mahajan JUDGMENT
Amit Mahajan, J.
1. The present application has been filed under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ('CrPC') read with Section 482 of CrPC seeking regular bail in Crime No. VIII/32/DZU/2021 under Sections 8, 21(c) and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 ('NDPS Act').
2. It is alleged that on 18.06.2021, at about 2:30, on the basis of secret information received by Shri Anand Kumar, IO, a recovery of 135 grams of Cocaine was made from the house of the co-accused Justin Izuchukwu Samuel. It is the prosecution's case that the said accused in his statement revealed the name of the applicant, whose involvement in illegal trafficking of drugs was further corroborated by the CAF and CDR of the co-accused Justin, and the WhatsApp chats between them. The applicant was arrested on 25.11.2021, and has remained in custody since then.
3. The applicant's bail application was rejected by the learned Trial Court by order dated 22.02.2022, and later again by order dated 19.09.2022, due to the embargo under Section 37 of the NDPS Act.
SUBMISSIONS OF THE APPLICANT
4. The learned counsel for the applicant contends that the applicant is a poor taxi driver, and the sole bread earner in his family, who has been falsely implicated in the present case. He submitted that the applicant has clean antecedents.
5. He submitted that the investigation in respect to the applicant is complete and nothing incriminating has been recovered from the applicant. He further submitted that the applicant is in incarceration since 25.11.2021.
6. He contended that the applicant has been indicted in the present case merely on the basis of the statement of the co-accused Justin Izuchukwu Samuel.
7. He submitted that a disclosure statement of the co-accused is per se not substantial without being corroborated by recovery. The prosecution has thus not been able to establish any allegation against the applicant.
8. He further submitted that Section 37 of the NDPS Act is not attracted qua the applicant in the present case, and his bail application ought to be considered without applying the rigors thereof.
9. He placed reliance on the judgments in the cases of Lorik Ram vs. State of Assam: MANU/GH/0508/2022, Manoj Kumar Gupta vs. State of NCT Delhi: MANU/DE/2030/2002 : 2003 Cri LJ 2353 and Sujit Tiwari vs. State of Gujarat and Another: MANU/SC/0097/2020 : 2020:INSC:101 : (2020) 13 SCC 447 to endorse his submissions.
SUBMISSIONS OF NARCOTICS CONTROL BUREAU (NCB)
10. On the other hand, the learned counsel for NCB contended that the learned Trial Court has rightly dismissed the applicant's bail application by order dated 19.09.2022. He stated that all the grounds of the applicant, including his contention that no recovery has been effected from him directly, have been effectively dealt by the learned Trial Court and requires no interference.
11. He placed heavy reliance on the CDR and WhatsApp conversations between the applicant and the co-accused to impress upon this Court that both of them were in constant touch, and were actively dealing in drug trafficking.
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