HC rejects bail plea of man held for drug trafficking
Srinagar May 18: The High Court on Friday rejected the bail application of a man found trafficking large quantities of controlled drugs and directed recalling the bail of his co-accused.
The accused Faisal Ayoub Sheikh, son of Mohammad Ayoub Sheikh, residing at MIG Colony Bemina, Srinagar, who was accompanied by Feroz Ahmad Khanday, son of Mohammad Khanday an inhabitant of Bilal Colony, Qamarwari, and Mudasir Sultan Bhat alias Majid, son of Mohammad Sultan Bhat of Sir Syed Abad Bemina, Srinagar, were apprehended by police in January this year for carrying hundreds of bottles of cough syrups containing sedatives.
The High Court ordered rejection of the bail petitions of the accused and recalled the order dated February 02, 2018, where by the petitioner Feroz Ahmad Khanday had been admitted to interim bail.
“The petitioners shall be taken into custody and they shall be at liberty to move an application for the grant of bail in their favour before the trial court which shall be decided on its merits,” it ordered.
According to the case details, on January 16, 2018, a police patrol party spotted a vehicle (JK01X-7020) at Dr. Ali Jan Road near Bohlochipora. The vehicle was stopped and checked and from it 1019 bottles of Cof-Rex and Rex-cof were recovered. The vehicle was driven by Faisal Ayoub Sheikh and the other two accused accompanied him.
After the recovery of these controlled drugs, a case (FIR No. 07/2018) for the commission of offences punishable under Section 8/22 NDPS Act, was registered against the petitioners at Police Station, Soura, Srinagar, with which the investigation commenced.
During the course of the investigation, the controlled drugs (799 bottles of Cof-Rex weighing 100 ml each and 220 bottles of Rex-Cof weighing100 ml each) were sealed and seized on spot. These were produced before an Executive Magistrate.
The samples of the drugs were taken and sent to FSL for expert opinion. The residue was resealed and, accordingly, the accused were roped in for the commission of the offences aforesaid.
The petitioners claimed that an inter-mediatory quantity of drugs had been seized from them and, therefore, the rigor of Section 37 of the NDPS Act, will not apply to the case.
They also claimed being innocent and have not committed any offence.
The police resisted the applications of the applicants on the grounds that the controlled drugs were recovered from the possession of the applicants.
The petitioners, it said have committed a heinous offence. The menace of the drugs has eaten into the vitals of the society. It is a crime against the society and the societal concerns have to be guarded with zeal and zest.
The High Court held that “from the perusal of Section 37, it is evident that no person can be enlarged on bail, if he is found to be in the possession of a commercial quantity of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances or offences under Section 19 or Section 24 or Section 27A Act unless the court comes to the conclusion that the accused is not guilty of such an offence.”
It said that restrictions are provided in addition to the checks and curbs imposed under the Code of Criminal Procedure or any other law governing the grant of bails. In the present case, as is reiterated here, the petitioners have been found to be in the possession of 1019 bottles Cof-Rex and Rex-Cof.
On the basis of the recovery of such a huge quantity of controlled drugs found in the possession of the petitioners, it can well be said that the petitioners are prima facie involved in the commission of the offences and there is no reasonable ground to believe that they are not guilty of such offences, it said.
The natural or un-presentable human propensity to always eat the forbidden fruits will ever find means and ways to frustrate the laws and rules prohibiting the use of all such stuff, it remarked.
Rashid Paul is Associate Editor at Kashmir Images.
He can be reached at [email protected]
