Delhi HC Grants Bail In NDPS Case

The Delhi High Court recently granted regular bail in an NDPS case. A Bail application of 439 Cr. P.C r/w Section 37 NDPS w.r.t seized contraband of Ketamine hydrochloride filed in 2019 was finally heard in 2024 and a conditional regular bail granted on August 6, 2024 by Justice AJ Bhambani.

The grounds for the positive outcome were that the Delhi High Court was satisfied on merits that besides Applicant’s confessional statement u/s 67 NDPS Act and Accused no.2’s disclosure statement cannot be read against applicant as per Apex court’s judgment Tofan Singh v. State of Tamil Nadu (2021) 4 SCC 1 and well-settled principles of S. 25 & 27 of the Evidence Act 1872, the tampered case properties led to doubt on the entire recovery, public witnesses cited by the prosecution about identification of alleged contraband recovered turned hostile as this favored the other accused who were granted bail so it shall benefit the present applicant, and importantly the breach of Section 52-A vitiates the recovery.

This said principle was laid down by Apex court’s decisions in UOI v. Mohanlal & Anr. (2016) 3 SCC 379, Yusuf @Asif v. State (2023) SCC online SC 1328, and Mohammed Khalid & Anr. V. State of Telangana (2024) SCC online SC 213. Lastly, the Applicant suffered actual custody for more than 3.7 years which fell within context of Apex Court’s judgment Rabi Prakash v. State of Odisha (2023) SCC online SC 1109.

The Petitioner was represented by Mr Sudhir Nandrajog Senior Advocate along with Aranyak Pathak Advocate.