Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
In Re: Akhil Bhadra vs State Of Assam on 19 July, 2023
19.07.2023 Sl. No.7 akd [Rejected] C. R. M. (NDPS) 1254 of 2023 In Re: An application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure filed on 07.07.2023 in connection with NCB Crime No. 79/2021/NCB/KOL dated 25.11.2021 under Sections 8(c)/22(c)/28/29 of the NDPS Act.
And In Re: Akhil Bhadra ... ... Petitioner Mr. Arnab Chatterjee Mr. Amanul Islam Mr. Sourav Mukherjee Ms. Dhanasree Biswas ... ... for the petitioner Mr. Arun Kumar Maiti Mr. Sagar Saha ... ... for the NCB It is submitted on behalf of the petitioner that he is in custody for about one year and eight months. It is further submitted co-accused have been enlarged on bail by the Hon'ble Apex Court. Accordingly, he prays for bail.
Learned Advocate for the NCB oppose the prayer for bail and submits no narcotics was recovered from the co-accused whereas 2445 bottles of cough syrup containing codeine phosphate was recovered from the petitioner. Trial has already commenced.
We have considered the materials on record. Statements of witnesses including contemporaneous document i.e. seizure memo disclose recovery of narcotic substance i.e. 2445 bottles of cough syrup containing codeine phosphate, which is above commercial quantity from the petitioner and others for non-medicinal purposes.
In Mohd. Sahabuddin & Anr. vs. State of Assam1, the Apex Court held possession of drugs e.g. phensedyl syrup containing codeine phosphate for non-medicinal purposes would attract the provisions of 1 (2012) 13 SCC 491 2 NDPS Act. No narcotics was recovered from co-accused who have been enlarged on bail. Their complicity have transpired from their statements under Section 67 of the NDPS Act which are inadmissible in law as per Tofan Singh vs. State of Tamil Nadu2. Trial has already commenced and one witness has already been examined.
Under such circumstances and in view of the statutory restrictions under Section 37 of the NDPS Act, we are not inclined to grant bail to the petitioner.
The application for bail is thus rejected. Trial court is directed to conduct the trial with utmost expedition and conclude the same at an early date preferably within two years from the next date fixed for recording evidence without granting unnecessary adjournment to either of the parties.
Parties shall communicate a copy of this order to the trial court for due compliance.
(Ajay Kumar Gupta, J.) (Joymalya Bagchi, J.) 2 (2021) 4 SCC 1