Tripura High Court
Mr. J. Bhattacharjee vs Mr. R. Datta on 17 March, 2022
Page 1 of 5
HIGH COURT OF TRIPURA
AGARTALA
BA NO.10 OF 2022
Shri Pramod Debnath on behalf of Accd. Shri Jayanta
Debnath
Vs.
The State of Tripura.
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE T. AMARNATH GOUD
Present:
For the Petitioner(s) : Mr. J. Bhattacharjee, Advocate.
Mr. S. Ghosh, Advocate.
For the Respondent(s) : Mr. R. Datta, P.P.
17.03.2022
Order
Heard Mr. J. Bhattacharjee, learned counsel appearing for
the petitioner as well as Mr. Ratan Datta, learned Public
Prosecutor appearing for the State-respondent.
This is an application filed under Section 439 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973 for granting bail to the accused person
herein namely, Sri Jayanta Debnath, in connection with
Bodhjungnagar P.S. Case No.2021/BJN/052 registered under
Sections-21(C)/29 of the NDPS Act, 1985
It is the case of the petitioner that for more than 48 (forty-
eight) days, before the filing of this instant petition, the accused-
person herein has been in custody on the allegation of
possession and transportation of contraband items (Es-kuff
cough Syrup and Phensedyle cough Lintus) under the NDPS Act.
The accused person was arrested on 19.01.2022. Thereafter, he
moved a bail application before the Trial Court and the same has
been rejected. Hence the present bail application before this
Court.
Mr. J. Bhattacharjee, learned counsel appearing for the
petitioner argued that Mr. Raju Datta, I/C inspector, O/C
Khayerpur P.S has not informed his superior officers with regard
to the secret information that has been received thus, he has not
complied with the requirements of Section 42 of the NDPS Act
and has violated the statutory requirements of the NDPS Act. Mr.
Bhattacharjee learned counsel further argued that the accused
person herein, Shri Jayanta Debnath is not involved in the said
crime which has been registered. He has further submitted that
the accused-person herein is in no way connected with the
5(five) persons, namely, Bapi Marak, Rohit Marak, Kabita Sarkar,
Tapu Paul & Amar Das, whose mobile numbers have also been
indicated in the copy of the complaint made by Mr. Raju Datta,
the concerned SHO and the same were found switched off. The
above-named persons were involved in several past transactions
of the heavy consignment of Eskuf Cough Syrup and phensedyl
syrup. Huge quantities of this syrup were being transported from
other parts of the country to Tripura. Mr. Bhattacharjee, learned
counsel has further submitted that the accused-person herein is
a newly married person. He has married sometime in the mid of
December 2021 and, because of his arrest, his marital life is in
hindrance and his young spouse is also put to hardship. Stating
this, the petitioner-counsel submitted that the accused person is
innocent and is in no way relating to the alleged crime.
Mr. Bhattacharjee, learned counsel appearing for the
petitioner to strengthen his argument has further relied upon the
judgment of the Apex Court in Sarija Banu alias Janarthani
alias Janani and anr. Vs. State through Inspector of Police
reported in (2004) 12 SCC 266, and Judgment of this Court in
Khalek Miah Vs State of Tripura reported in (2016) 1 TLR
617. Petitioner-counsel has further relied upon an unreported
judgment of this Court titled as Shri Dipesh Majumder and
ors. Vs. The State of Tripura bearing registration number B.A.
No.156 of 2019 decided on 19.12.2012.
Mr. Ratan Dutta, the learned Public Prosecutor appearing
for the State-respondent argued that the accused person herein
is a habitual offender and for the past 6(six) months they are
involved in this trade. Learned P.P. further submitted that there
is sufficient information and in the preliminary inquiry, it has
come to their knowledge that Sajal Debnath and Jayanta
Debnath(accused person herein) who are both brothers are
involved with the transportation of these medical syrups which
the prosecution has a reason to believe that it is Narcotic Drugs
and thus for further investigation, requires some more time.
Accordingly, the bail need not be granted, and prayed to dismiss
the bail application.
Now in reply to the Sarija Banu (supra) and Khalek
Miah(supra) as relied upon by the petitioner-counsel, this Court
has no hesitation to say that the judgments as relied upon by the
petitioner-counsel is with regard to the non-compliance of the
provisions and are not relevant to the fact of the present case.
Further, the contraband items which is the subject matter of the
above judgments is 'ganja' which is included as a schedule 'H'
drug and it is a direct NDPS Drug. With regard to Shri Dipesh
Majumder(supra), this Court also has no hesitation to say that
the fact in the said case though pertains to medical products(
some cough syrups), the reason for granting the bail in the said
bail application was that there was no proper information and
material before the prosecution for detaining the accused
persons for long period. In view of the same, the bail was
granted.
In the present scenario, the prosecution in its preliminary
inquiry has sufficient information to say that the accused person
is a habitual offender and is involved in the said crime.
The State of Tripura has sufficient numbers of wine shops
for the purpose of consumption of liquor and getting intoxicated
and at the same time, the State of Tripura has sufficient medical
stores for administering medicines to the required patients under
a proper license that are issued by the respective Excise and
Pharmacy departments. But in the instant case, the petitioner
and the other persons involved herein are unlicensed persons
and huge quantity of contraband items (5120 Nos bottles of, 100
ml each of Eskuf Cough Syrup & 9542 Nos of Phensedyl Cough
Lintus bottles) are being unauthorizedly dumped into the State of
Tripura from other neighboring states. This Court expresses
doubt that in the name of this cough syrup is there any other
contraband filled in these bottles and the same are supplied
secretly to their respective customers. When such a huge
quantity of around 15,000 bottles of so-called contrabands is
involved, it becomes necessary to protect the society from such
dealers and suppliers in the interest of the State of Tripura and
its citizen.
In view of the above observation, this Court feels that
sufficient opportunity should be given to the prosecution to
investigate the matter as per procedure and proceed further.
However, in view of the prolonged detaining of the accused
person herein, this Court directs the prosecution to expedite this
investigation and see that proper reports are filed before the
concerned Court, so, that the accused-person can take
appropriate steps available under law.
With the above observation and direction, the instant bail
application stands dismissed.
JUDGE
suhanjit
