The court made the observation while rejecting the anticipatory bail applications of two Delhi residents booked earlier this year. (Representational) REJECTING ALLEGATIONS that Narcotics Control Bureau officers had planted drugs at the house of two accused in a drugs case, a special court last week said the officers had no personal enmity with them to show a false recovery.
The court made the observation while rejecting the anticipatory bail applications of two Delhi residents booked earlier this year.
The pleas were filed by brothers Vikas Chawla and Deepak Chawla, alleging that they apprehended arrest after the NCB claimed that their name had cropped up during the probe. Their pleas said that the NCB had conducted a search at their residence in Delhi and claimed to have seized commercial quantities of various drugs and psychotropic substances. They claimed that no notice given to them, no search warrant was shown, nor was the local police intimated. They also alleged that the panchnama was falsely prepared, showing planted recovery.
“From the panchnama dated 23/02/2021, it is clear that huge (commercial) quantity of the contraband was found in the search of the house of applicants. It is the contention of applicants that the investigating officer has planned recovery with malafide intention to implicate the applicants in false case. So far as this contention of applicants is concerned, it is pertinent to note that the respondent is NCB, Mumbai. The officers of the respondent have no personal enmity with the applicants so as to show the planned recovery. Search was done in presence of panchas,” the court said.
The names of the two accused had cropped up in the statement of Mohammed Anas, arrested after a raid in Kurla in February. The raid led NCB to 4,824 tablets of Tramadol of over 2.6 kg, considered a commercial quantity.
Anas had allegedly said in his voluntary statement that the drugs were supplied by the two Delhi-based accused. The subsequent search at their Delhi residence had led to the alleged seizure of 270 gm of Alprzolam tablets, 1.39 kg of tramadol capsules and other contraband along with Rs 59,000 cash.
The NCB has claimed that there was a recovery of bulk quantity of contraband and that the two are the kingpin and main suppliers of the seized drugs. The court said that while the statement of Anas cannot be relied on as per a Supreme Court judgment, the house search and seizure of a commercial quantity of drugs from the Delhi residence showed that the two accused were in conscious possession of the contraband. The court added that in such a case, their custodial interrogation is necessary.
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