On December 21, 2022, the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a single Judge bench consisting of Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi, while dismissing the petition for an anticipatory bail, observed that “with increased use of drones to transport drugs and weapons, cross border narco-terrorism is on the rise and must be nipped in the bud with a heavy hand.”
Brief Facts:
A secret information was received by the investigating agency that the petitioner was indulged in the smuggling of heroin for a long time and had close contacts with Pakistan based smugglers. He used to get heroin from Pakistan in huge quantity and then supplied it in various parts of Punjab. He was in touch with the Pakistani Smugglers and was likely to finalize a deal with them soon. According to the deal, Gurmeet was to receive a huge consignment of heroin from Pakistani dealers on the intervening night of 09-10.08.2021 via BOP Muhawa over the border fencing. Based on this secret information, an FIR on 10.08.2021 u/s 21,23 and 29 of the NDPS Act was registered at Police Station Special Task Force, SAS Nagar. Thereafter, a raid was conducted on that intervening night but nothing was recovered and the petitioner was also not found on the spot. A similar raid was conducted on 18-19.08.2021 which was also unsuccessful.Subsequently, on 25.05.2022, secret information was received once again by the investigating agency that the petitioner was smuggling a huge quantity of heroin in the area of BOP Bharowal. The police officials informed this to the officials of BSF 144 Battalion. At around 11:00 p.m. a drone was found coming from the Pakistan side. After firing at it, it dropped two packets of heroin and back to the Pakistan side. Those packets contained 1.120 grams of heroin each. Hence, 2kilos 240 grams of heroin was recovered.
An anticipatory bail was sought by the petitioner which was dismissed by the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Amritsar. Thereafter, the same was sought from HC. During the proceedings, petitioner was asked to join the investigation. He was asked to provide his mobile phone along with SIM card but he stated that his mother had destroyed the mobile phone as well as the SIM card by burning the same.
Contentions of the Petitioner:
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that “the FIR was registered on 10.08.2021 and the contraband was recovered on the intervening night of 25-26.05.2022. During the interim period, the investigating agency had raided the alleged place of occurrence i.e., BOP Muhawa on 09/10.08.2021 but no recovery was effected.”
He further contended that the recovery cannot be connected to the petitioner in any manner. The petitioner had already disclosed to the investigating agencies about his phone being destroyed by his mother. Moreover, he had handed over his wife’s mobile phone to the investigating agency. Therefore, he must be granted the concession of anticipatory bail.
Contentions of the Respondent:
The counsel for the state submitted that “the petitioner is deliberately misleading the investigating agency. As per police investigation, the petitioner was in touch with Pakistan based smugglers. Though, he had joined the investigation, he refused to hand over his phone and SIM card to the investigating agency. On the contrary he stated that the same had been destroyed by his mother.”
The counsel thus contended that the serious nature of the allegations against the petitioner of being in contact with Pakistan based smugglers for the smuggling of drugs does not entitle him to the grant of anticipatory bail.
Observations of the Court:
The Hon’ble court observed that the allegations against the petitioner were very serious and as per the secret information, the petitioner was arrested to have been in contact with Pakistan-based smugglers on a number of occasions.
“On joining the investigation, the petitioner has made deliberate attempts to mislead the investigation firstly, by stating that his phone and SIM card have been destroyed by his mother and thereafter, by handing over the mobile phone of his wife to the investigating agency. Therefore, it is apparent that the petitioner is withholding vital information, which is necessary for the investigating agency to take the investigation of the present case to the logical conclusion.”
The court further observed that “with increased use of drones to transport drugs and weapons, cross border narco-terrorism is on the rise and must be nipped in the bud with a heavy hand.”
Decision of the Court:
The present petition was dismissed. Hence, the concession of anticipatory bail was not given to the petitioner.
Case Title: Gurmeet Singh V. State of Punjab
Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi
Case No.- CRM-M-39066-2022 (O & M)
Advocate for Petitioner: Mr. Rohit Sharma and Mr. Lupil Gupta
Advocate for Respondent: Mr. Kirat Singh Sidhu
Read Judgement;
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(With input from news agency language)
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