Pintu Kumar Yadav @ Pintu Kumar v. The State of Assam

ORDER Date : 27.09.2023 Heard Mr. M.A.Choudhury, learned counsel for the accused petitioner as well as Mr. D.P.Goswami, learned Additional Public Prosecutor, Assam for the State respondent. By this petition under Section 439 Cr.P.C., the accused-petitioner, namely, Pintu Kumar Yadav @ Pintu Kumar has prayed for grant of bail in connection with Special (NDPS) Case No. 33/2022 pending in the Court of learned Special Judge, Karimganj arising out of Badarpur G.R.P.S. Case No.15/2022 under Sections under Section 20 (b) (ii) (c) of the Page No.# 2/3 NDPS Act. The scanned copy of the case records is received. The prosecution case reveals that 32 Kgs of suspected cannabis (ganja) was recovered and seized from the possession of the present accused petitioner and another co-accused person. It is noticed that the accused has been in judicial custody since 27.02.2022 i.e. for 577 days. A perusal of the case record reveals that the charges were framed under Section 20(b) (ii) (c) of the NDPS Act against the present accused petitioner and another co-accused person vide order, dated 09.09.2022 by the learned trial court. Vide seizure memo, it reveals that 32 Kgs of suspected cannabis was recovered and seized from the collective possession of the accused persons. The FSL report gave positive tests for Cannabis (Ganja). No witness is examined till date. This Court is of the opinion that although there is bar under Section 37 of the N.D.P.S. Act in granting bail to accused in matters involving commercial quantity, in view of the mandate under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, if the accused petitioner who is in judicial custody for 570 days, is released on bail, the remaining part of the trial is unlikely to be hampered. Accordingly, the prayer for bail of the present accused petitioner may be considered favourably. Accordingly, it is provided that the accused petitioner, named above who hails from State of Bihar shall be released on bail of Rs. 1, 00,000/- ( One Lakh) with 2 (two) sureties of like amount to the satisfaction of learned Special Judge (NDPS Act) Karimganj, subject to the following conditions:

i) That the accused petitioner shall continue to appear before the learned trial Court on all dates to be fixed from time to time till the case is disposed of; and

ii) That the accused petitioner shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any of the prosecution witnesses; and

iii) That the accused petitioner shall refrain from committing any Page No.# 3/3 similar offences in future, of which he is accused of commission;

iv) That out of the two sureties, one must be a government servant subject to verification of the relevant documents, if deemed necessary and after such verification, the learned Court below shall return the original documents retaining legible scanned copy thereof on record for future reference. Breach of any of the above conditions shall render cancellation of bail in accordance with law. This disposes of the bail application.

JUDGE Comparing Assistant

Page No.# 1/3 GAHC010217362023 THE GAUHATI HIGH COURT (HIGH COURT OF ASSAM, NAGALAND, MIZORAM AND ARUNACHAL PRADESH) Case No. : Bail Appln./3446/2023 PINTU KUMAR YADAV @ PINTU KUMAR S/O- SHIV KUMAR YADAV, R/O- VILL- SAMPACHAK BAZAR, PO- GOPALPUR, POLICE STATION- SONAGOPALPUR, DIST- PATNA, BIHAR VERSUS THE STATE OF ASSAM TO BE REPRESENTED BY THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR Advocate for the Petitioner : MR. M A CHOUDHURY Advocate for the Respondent : PP, ASSAM BEFORE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE AJIT BORTHAKUR