Rohit Alias Kalu v. State of Punjab

JASJIT SINGH BEDI, J. The prayer in the present petition under Section 438 Cr.P.C  is for the grant of anticipatory bail in case bearing FIR No.12 dated 29.01.2024 registered under Sections 21(b)/29 of the NDPS Act at Police Station Mohkampura, Amritsar.

¶2The brief facts of the case are that one Rahul Singh @ Sheru was apprehended with 06 grams of heroin leading to the registration of the FIR. During the course of investigation, he disclosed the name of the present petitioner.

¶3The learned counsel for the petitioner contends that in the instant case, the petitioner has been named in the disclosure statement of his co-accused. As he has been named in the disclosure statement alone without any corroborative evidence, he was entitled to the concession of anticipatory bail. Reliance is placed on the judgments in the cases of Tofan Singh Versus State of Tamil Nadu, 2020 AIR (Supreme Court) 5592, Rakesh Kumar Singla CRM-M-15317-2024                                                                   -2-Versus Union of India, 2021(1) RCR (Criminal) 704,  Surinder Kumar Khanna Versus Intelligence Officer Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, 2018(3) RCR (Criminal) 954, State by (NCB) Bengaluru Versus Pallulabid Ahmad Arimutta & Anr. 2022(1) RCR (Criminal) 762, Sanjeev Chandra Agarwal & Anr. Versus Union of India 2021(4) RCR (Criminal) 590, Vijay Singh Versus The State of Haryana, bearing Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No.(s).1266/2023 decided on 17.05.2023 and Vikrant Singh Versus State of Punjab, CRM-M-39657-2020.

¶4 On the other hand, the learned State counsel contends that the petitioner is a habitual offender. Apart from the present case, he has been involved in three other cases bearing FIR No.78 dated 02.07.2022 U/s 21/61/85 of NDPS Act, P.S.  Mohkampura, Amritsar,  FIR No.10 dated

24.01.2024 under Sections 21(b)/29 of the NDPS Act, 1985 Police Station Gate Mohkampura, Amritsar in which his bail application has been dismissed by this Court vide order dated 03.04.2024 passed in CRM-M-11285-2024 and FIR No.14 dated 31.01.2024 U/s 21(b), 29/61/85 NDPS Act. She, therefore, contends that the antecedents of the petitioner did not entitle him to the grant of anticipatory bail in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the present case.

¶5I have heard the learned counsel for both the parties at length.

¶6The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of  State of Haryana Versus Samarth Kumar 2022 (3) RCR (Criminal) 991, held as under:- "4. The High Court decided to grant pre-arrest bail to the respondents on the only ground that no recovery was effected from the respondents and that they had been implicated only on the basis of the disclosure statement of the main accused Dinesh Kumar. Therefore, reliance was placed by the High CRM-M-15317-2024                                                                   -3-Court in the majority judgment of this Court in   Tofan Singh v. State of Tamil Nadu reported in (2021) 4 SCC 1.

¶5But, it is contended by the learned Additional Advocate General appearing on behalf of the State of Haryana that on the basis of the anticipatory bail granted to the respondents, the Special Court was constrained to grant regular bail even to the main accused-Dinesh Kumar and he jumped bail. Fortunately, the main accused-Dinesh Kumar has again been apprehended. According to the learned Additional Advocate General, the respondent in the second of these appeals is also a habitual offender.

¶6Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent in the first of these Appeals contends that the State is guilty of suppression of the vital fact that the respondent was granted regular bail after the charge-sheet was filed and that therefore, nothing survives in the appeal. But,we do not agree.

¶7The order of the Special Court granting regular bail to the respondents shows that the said order was passed in pursuance of the anticipatory bail granted by the High Court. Therefore, the same cannot be a ground to hold that the present appeals have become infructuous.

¶8In cases of this nature, the respondents may be able to take advantage of the decision in  T ofan Singh v. State of Tamil Nadu (supra), perhaps at the time of arguing the regular bail application or at the time of final hearing after conclusion of the trial.

¶9To grant anticipatory bail in a case of this nature is not really warranted. Therefore, we are of the view that the High Court fell into an error in granting anticipatory bail to the respondents.

¶10In view of the above, the appeals are allowed. The impugned orders are set-aside. As a consequence, the CRM-M-15317-2024                                                                   -4-Appellant-State is entitled to take steps, in accordance with law. =emphasis supp'ied>

¶8)n Vi4a. Singh Versus The State of 6ar.ana, -earing Spe'ial 7ea*e to Appeal (Crl2) No2(s)2$2338202, de'ided on $%2052202,, it 4as he'd as under:6 "The petitioner is alleged to have committed offences under Sections 15 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter called the NDPS Act". His application for anticipatory bail was rejected by the High Court. The allegations in the FIR are that 1.7 Kg of Poppy Straw (Doda Post) was recovered from the co-accused. The petitioner concededly was not present at the spot but was named by the co-accused. That apart there is no other material to implicate the petitioner. The prosecution urges that another case with allegations of commission of offence under the NDPS Act are pending against the petitioner. It is not denied that in those proceedings he was granted bail. Having regard to these circumstances, the petitioner is directed to the enlarged on anticipatory bail, subject to such terms and conditions as the trial Court may impose. The petition is allowed. All pending applications are disposed of." /emphasis supp'iedti %.   !his Court in the case of Vi!rant Singh Versus State of 0un4a-, CR9:9:, 35%:2020, he'd as under:6 "It is not in dispute that the petitioners have not been named in the FIR. No recovery has been effected from the petitioners and the alleged recovery has been effected from two co-accused Rakesh Sharma and Ravdeep Singh alias Sheru. The petitioners are sought to be implicated solely on the basis of the disclosure statement made by the co-accused Rakesh CRM-M-15317-2024                                                                   -5-Sharma and Ravdeep Singh @ Sheru and even after the petitioners were arrayed as accused in pursuance of the disclosure statements, no recovery had been made from the petitioners. The petitioners have been in custody since 06.11.2020 (Vikrant Singh), 05.12.2020 (Subash Chander) and

23.04.2021 (Davinder Singh) and challan in the present case has already been presented and there are 32 witnesses, out of whom only one has been examined and thus, the trial is likely to take time on account of Covid-19 Pandemic. The petitioners are not involved in any other case. With respect to the call details, suffice to say that no dates on which the said calls had been allegedly made by the coaccused, Rakesh Sharma and Ravdeep Singh alias Sheru to the petitioners or vice-versa have been mentioned in the affidavit or in the report under Section 173 Cr.P.C. Moreover, even the transcript of the said conversations are not a part of the record under Section 173 Cr.P.C. A Division Bench of this Court in Narcotics Control Bureau's case (supra), was pleased to observe as under:- Still further, no conversation detail between accused Ramesh Kumar Patil and accused Sandeep has been produced by the prosecution. Mere call details is not sufficient to prove that Sandeep accused was also involved in the business of narcotic drugs or he had any connected with Ramesh Kumar Patil. In view of the above, no case is made out for grant of leave to appeal against the acquittal of Sandeep accused." In judgment of the Gujarat High Court in Yash Jayeshbhai Champaklal Shah's case (supra), it has been observed as under:- "Having heard learned advocates for the appearing parties, it emerges on record that the applicant is not CRM-M-15317-2024                                                                   -6-found in possession of any contraband article. Over and above that, the call data records may reveal that in an around the time of incident, he was in contact with the co-accused who were found in possession of contraband. Since there is no recording of conversation in between the accused, mere contacts with the co-accused who were found in possession cannot be treated to be a corroborative material in absence of substantive material found against the accused." A perusal of the above judgment would show that without the transcript of the conversations exchanged between the co-accused, mere call details would not be considered to be corroborative material in absence of substantive material found against the accused. In the present case, there is no other material against the petitioners. Keeping in view the above-said facts and circumstances, as well as law laid down in the judgments noticed hereinabove, the present petitions are allowed and the petitioners are ordered to be released on bail on their furnishing bail/surety bonds to the satisfaction of the concerned trial Court/Duty Magistrate and subject to their not being required in any other case. /emphasis supp'iedti -. !his Court in the case of Ran4it Singh Versus State of 0un4a-, CR9:9:25523:202,, de'ided on $%20%2202,, he'd as under:6 "8. Coming back to the facts of the present case, it is pertinent to note here that other than the instant FIR in which the petitioner has been nominated as an accused on the basis of the disclosure statement of the arrested accused, the petitioner is also an accused in two other cases under the NDPS Act. In addition, he had been an accused in three other cases, though he has been acquitted in the said cases. It is highly unlikely CRM-M-15317-2024                                                                   -7-that the petitioner would have been implicated in multiple FIRs at the whims and fancies of the Investigating Agency.

¶9When there are multiple FIRs against a person over a significant period of time (in this case 18 years), then even though he may have been acquitted in some of those cases, the twin conditions as envisaged under Section 37 of the NDPS Act that he has not committed an offence and was not likely to commit an offence cannot be satisfied.

¶10Keeping in view the conduct of the petitioner and his criminal antecedents, his custodial interrogation would certainly be necessary to effect necessary recoveries and to take the investigation to its logical conclusion.

¶11In view of the above, I find no merit in the present petition. Therefore, the same stands dismissed. /emphasi?ed supp'iedti +.. !his Court in 2%*( 2(*78 , C8"9:"1/ 2"8(;6 CRM-M-31645-20226 4$'(4$4 %* 20+10+2022, he'd as under:6 "The Counsel for the petitioner contends that the petitioner is not named in the FIR nor in the secret information. He has been named only in the disclosure statement of his co-accused which is inadmissible in evidence and even otherwise since the recovery effected from him of 3 Kgs of Poppy Husk is of non commercial quantity, therefore the rigors of Section 37 of NDPS Act did not apply to the petitioner. Since the petitioner was in custody since

26.05.2022 and the trial was not likely to be concluded in the near future, he deserved the concession of bail. The Counsel for the State on the other hand contends that the petitioner is a trafficker along with his co-accused. As per the disclosure statement 200 Kgs of Poppy Husk was to be supplied to the petitioner. Further he is involved in two other cases under the NDPS Act as also one case under the CRM-M-15317-2024                                                                   -8-Excise Act and, therefore, did not deserve the concession of bail in view of his antecedents. I have heard counsel for both the sides at length. Admittedly, the petitioner in the present case is named in the disclosure statement of the arrested accused. Subsequently thereto 3Kgs of Poppy Husk was recovered at his instance which is a non commercial quantity. It may be relevant to mention here that limitations to the grant of bail under Section 37 of the NDPS Act are in addition to those prescribed under Cr.PC or any other law inforce on the grant of bail as has been set out by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Satpal Singh Vs. State of Punjab 2018(5) RCR (Criminal)

¶152In the present case, the petitioner is involved in two other cases under the NDPS Act. Thus, as he is a habitual offender, he is not entitled to the grant of bail even under Section 439 Cr.PC keeping in view his antecedents. Even otherwise, assuming that the rigors of Section 37 of the NDPS Act did not apply to the petitioner, that by itself would not ipso facto lead to the grant of bail to the petitioner. In view of the above discussion, I find no merit in the present petition and the same is therefore dismissed. /emphasis supp'iedti ++. )n Samarth "umar /suprati the ;on<b'e "upreme Court had c'ear'y he'd that an accused 4ho had been named in the disc'osure statement of a co6 accused 4as not entit'ed to the &rant of anticipatory bai' but cou'd be &ranted re&u'ar bai'. ;o4ever, in Vi4a. Singh /suprati a some4hat contrary vie4 4as ta2en and the accused therein 4as &ranted the concession of anticipatory bai' even thou&h he had been an accused in another case under the *DP" Act in 4hich he 4as on bai'. )n Vi!rant Singh /suprati this Court he'd that 4here an accused had been named in the disc'osure statement of his co6accused and there 4ere CDRs1@hatsApp ca''s1chats bet4een the arrested accused and the person CRM-M-15317-2024                                                                   -9-named in a disclosure statement then in the absence of the contents of the conversation/chats bail could not be denied to the said accused. In Ranjit Singh (supra) and Soni Singh @ Chamkaur Sahib (supra) it has been held by this Court that where there were multiple FIRs against an accused over a period of time then, even though he had been named in a disclosure statement, he was not entitled to the concession of bail.

¶12Coming back to the facts of the present case, other than the present FIR in which the petitioner has been nominated as an accused on the basis of the disclosure statement of a co-accused, the petitioner is also an accused in three other cases under the NDPS Act bearing  FIR No.78 dated 02.07.2022 U/s 21/61/85 of NDPS Act, P.S. Mohkampura, Amritsar,  FIR No.10 dated

24.01.2024 under Sections 21(b)/29 of the NDPS Act, 1985 Police Station Gate Mohkampura, Amritsar  and FIR No.14 dated 31.01.2024 U/s 21(b), 29/61/85 NDPS Act. It is highly unlikely that the petitioner would have been implicated in multiple FIRs at the whims and fancies of the Investigating Agency.

¶13In fact, when there are multiple FIRs against an accused over a significant period of time, then the twin conditions as envisaged under Section 37 of the NDPS Act that he had not committed an offence and was not likely to commit an offence cannot be satisfied. Further, the limitation to the grant of bail under Section 37 of the NDPS Act are in addition to those prescribed under the Cr.P.C. or any other law in force on the grant of bail. Thus, a habitual offender is not entitled to the grant of bail even under the provisions of the Cr.P.C. keeping in view his criminal antecedents. On the contrary, in such cases, where anticipatory bail is sought the custodial CRM-M-15317-2024                                                                   -10-interrogation is certainly necessary even though the accused may have joined investigation at an earlier stage.

¶14Keeping in view the conduct of the petitioner and his criminal antecedents, his custodial interrogation would certainly be necessary to effect recoveries and  to take the investigation to its logical conclusion.

¶15In view of the above, I find no merit in the present petition. Therefore, the same stands dismissed. (JASJIT SINGH BEDI) JUDGE

22.04.2024 JITESH  Whether speaking/reasoned:-  Yes/No Whether reportable:-          Yes/No

CRM-M-15317-2024 -1- (103) IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CRM-M-15317-2024 Date of Decision:22.04.2024 ROHIT @ KALU ... Petitioner Versus STATE OF PUNJAB ...Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASJIT SINGH BEDI Present: Mr. Rishu Mahajan, Advocate for the petitioner. Ms. Ramta K Chaudhary, DAG, Punjab. ****