Tripura High Court
Supriya Shil On Behalf Of Accd vs State Of Tripura on 30 July, 2018
Author: Arindam Lodh
Bench: Arindam Lodh
Page - 1 of 7
HIGH COURT OF TRIPURA
AGARTALA
BA 67 OF 2018
Supriya Shil on behalf of accd.
Nirmal Shil
---- Petitioner(s).
Versus
State of Tripura
---Respondent(s).
For Petitoner(s) : Mr. P.K.Biswas, Sr. Adv.
Mr. P. Majumder, Adv.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. B. Choudhury, P.P.
HON'BLE MR JUSTICE ARINDAM LODH
Order
30/07/2018
One Smt. Supriya Shil being the wife of the accused Sri Nirmal Shil has filed the instant bail application for releasing her husband on bail who has been in custody since 09.07.2018.
The facts which are stated in the bail application that he was arrested on 21.06.2018 in connection with East Agartala P.S. Case No.108 of 2018 for committing offence under Sections 417/468/469/471/34 of IPC. Subsequently, he was released on bail on condition that he had to appear before the Sadar Police Court. To comply this condition when he came to the Sadar Police Court for his appearance in connection with that case on 09.07.2018, he was informed that he had been arrested in connection with Teliamura P.S. Case No.60/2016.
The allegation was that one Sumanullah Kazi, Sub- Inspector of Teliamura P.S. lodged an FIR on 24.06.2016 to the O.C., Teliamura P.S. stating that on 24.06.2016 at 7:45 hours, the SDPO, Teliamura informed over telephone that he has Page - 2 of 7 received a secret information from reliable source that one Bolero Pickup Van vide registration No.TR01-V-1659 was carrying huge quantity of contraband codeine based phensidyl which is halted on the road side of Khowai-Teliamura road located at Karoilong and also informed that it will shortly reach at the police station and the said information has been registered in GD Entry No.09 dated 24.06.2016 and thereafter the SDPO, Teliamura formed a team and being accompanied by the SDPO, Teliamura, O.C., Teliamura P.S. and other police staff left the police station on the basis of the information received and on arrival at the place of occurrence, the vehicle, as mentioned above was searched and on being searched a huge quantity of phensidyl, total 1587 nos. of plastic phensidyl bottles were found inside the vehicle and accordingly those were seized along with the vehicle and on the basis of the said FIR, Teliamura P.S. Case No.60 of 2016 under Section 22(c) of the NDPS Act was registered against unknown persons.
After his arrest in connection with Teliamura P.S. Case No.60 of 2016, on 09.07.2018 he was produced before the learned Special Judge, NDPS, Khowai on 10.07.2018. The accused first was arrested in connection with East Agartala P.S. Case No.108/2018 as stated above and the allegations mentioned in the FIR are same which are mentioned for ground of arrest in connection with Teliamura P.S. Case No.60/2018 as reflected in the order dated 10.07.2018 by the learned Special Judge, Khowai.
The accused was released on interim bail in connection with the East Agartala P.S. Case No.108/2018 on 27.06.2018 but the condition of the order of bail was modified by the learned Page - 3 of 7 Addl. Chief Judicial Magistrate, West Tripura, Agartala on 10.07.2018 after considering the allegations made against the accused that though he went to the police station for registering his appearance, the same was recorded only for two days but subsequently his presence were not recorded by the I.O. with a view to get the order of bail cancelled and the accused submitted before the Court that though he went to the police station for registration of his appearance but the same was not recorded that his appearance would be proved if the footage of the CCTV of the police station is called for and stating the same he has filed an application before the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, West Tripura, Agartala on 05.07.2018 and on consideration of the same the learned Addl. Chief Judicial Magistrate, West Tripura, Agrtala has modified the order and directed that instead of registration of his appearance in the police station, he will appear before the Court Inspector, Sadar Police Court, Agartala.
It is further stated in the petition that when the accused came to the Court of Agartala for registering his appearance on 09.07.2018 at 11:13 hours which was recorded by the Court Inspector, Sadar Police Court, at that time he was called by the O.C., West Agartala Police Station and then he informed that he was arrested in connection with East Agartala P.S. Case No.108/2018, as mentioned above.
It is revealed that the case of Teliamura P.S. was registered in the year 2016 and the accused was never informed by the police that he is wanted or involved in connection with the said case and more so, when he was arrested in connection with Page - 4 of 7 East Agartala P.S. Case No.108/2018 and he was detained in custody, at that time also the police did not inform the Court that he was wanted in connection with any other case which would be presumed that there was no case pending against the accused in Teliamura police station and the allegations levelled against the accused in connection with the Teliamura P.S. case, as mentioned above are false and fabricated only to detain the accused, as he has made serious allegations against the police in connection with East Agartala P.S. Case No.108 of 2018 and the for the same offence, it is mandate of the law that a person cannot be tried or convicted for the same offence for more than once as mentioned in Section 300 of Cr.P.C. and Article 20 of the Constitution of India and the arrest have been made in violation of provision of the Cr.P.C. and the Constitution of India and as such the accused is entitled to be released on bail.
Mr. P.K.Biswas, learned Sr. counsel assisted by Mr. P.Majumder, learned counsel for the petitioner on the basis of the aforesaid facts submits that the accused Nirmal Shil is entitled to be released on bail due to violation of the provisions of the Cr.P.C. because of the fact that when the accused was in the custody in connection with East Agartala P.S. Case No.108/2018 it was neither informed to the Officer-in-Charge of the East Agartala P.S. nor to the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, West Tripura, Agartala that he is wanted in connection with Teliamura P.S. Case No.60/2016 and after his release on bail in connection with the East Agartala P.S. Case No.108/2018 his immediate arrest in connection with Teliamura P.S.Case No.60.2016 under Section Page - 5 of 7 22(c) of the NDPS Act,1985 is illegal and his liberty as enshrined under Article 20 of the Constitution of India is curtailed.
Per contra, Mr. B. Choudhury, learned P.P. appearing for the State-respondent submits that the accused Nirmal Shil is a habitual offender of drug peddling. He is the king pin of trading and peddling of drugs across the State of Tripura having connection with the other stakeholders who are badly involved in various types of drug peddling including phensidyl.
Learned P.P. has blamed his own police personnel for giving liberty and encouraging the drug peddling to some of the drug peddlers of the State. Mr. Choudhury, has produced the case diary before this Court. The concerning Investigating officer wanted to close up the case by submitting final report. On the prayer of closing the case, learned Court has found some irregularities and directed the I.O. to re-verify the various documents including the certificate in the affidavit sworn before the Notary. When the police started investigation again and then recorded the statement of the wife and son of the deceased Babul Sarkar in whose name the vehicle No. TR01-V-1659 was registered wherein they have stated that late Babul Sarkar was a mason and he had never any vehicle in his name. The I.O. approached the Notary, Sri Jyotirmoy Ghosh and in his statement he has stated that a copy of the agreement between the accused Nirmal Shil and Babul Sarkar was not executed under his seal and signature and his signature and seal have been forged. After this investigation the East Agartala P.S. Case No.108/2018 was registered under Sections 417/468/469/471/34 of IPC.
Page - 6 of 7 The vehicle No.TR01-V-1659 is the vehicle through which huge nos. of phensidyl bottles were being carried which was seized by Teliamura P.S. in the year 2016 initiating the registration of case No. 60/2016 under Section 22(c) of the NDPS Act, 1985.
Now, with the arrest of the present accused Nirmal Shil and during the course of investigation it is revealed that he had connection with the vehicle seized by the police of Teliamura police which was carrying phensidyl. From the case diary, it is revealed that Babul Sarkar was wanted in connection with Teliamura P.S.Case No.60/2016 as owner of that vehicle. But the subsequent investigation reveals that he was simply a mason and final report was submitted against late Babul Sarkar and the accused Nirmal Shil allegedly forged the deed of agreement and named Babul Sarkar.
Mr. Choudhury, learned P.P. further submits that during the course of investigation it is found that the present accused Nirmal Shil was involved in drug peddling business by creating a false agreement with late Babul Sarkar. After the arrest of the present accused Nirmal Shil when the I.O. has made a prayer before the learned Special judge, Khowai to add section 29 of the NDPS Act and 193 of the Indian Penal Code, the said prayer of the I.O. was declined by the learned Special Judge. However, the learned Special Judge after considering the provisions of Section 37 of the NDPS Act was not inclined to enlarge the accused on bail.
Page - 7 of 7 Situated thus, the learned P.P. has found enough culpability of the accused being involved in connection with Teliamura P.S. Case No.60/2016. He has raised serious doubts that why the accused Nirmal Shil has fabricated the agreement with one Babul Sarkar for hiring his vehicle at the monthly rent of Rs.7000/- when there was no vehicle registered in the name of Babul Sarkar. Moreover, Babul Sarkar was a mason.
After perusal of the case diary and having considered the rival submissions of the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as the learned Public Prosecutor, this Court is of the opinion that this is a very preliminary stage to come to the conclusion that the accused Nirmal Shil is not guilty of committing offence under Section 22(c) of the NDPS Act in connection with Teliamura P.S. Case No.60/2016.
However, the I.O. is directed to complete the investigation within a period of 30 days from today. Liberty is granted to the accused to approach this Court if he so desires after completion of investigation.
With the above observations and directions, the bail applications stands rejected and disposed of.
Case diary is returned to learned Public Prosecutor.
JUDGE sanjay