Tripura High Court
Smt. Shilpi Deb Das vs The State Of Tripura on 1 August, 2025
HIGH COURT OF TRIPURA
AGARTALA
B.A. No.62 of 2025
Smt. Shilpi Deb Das,
W/O Sri Bapi Das,
Resident of Charipara, P.S.- Amtali,
District- West Tripura.
.... Petitioner on behalf of the
Accused person-in-custody
Sri Bapi Das,
S/O- Late Manoranjan Das
Resident of G.B. 79 Tilla,
Agartala, P.S.- New Capital Complex,
District- West Tripura,
Presently residing at Charipara,
P.S.- Amtali, District- West Tripura.
.... Accused Person-in-custody
Versus
The State of Tripura
.......Respondent.
For Applicant(s) : Mr. Subrata Sarkar, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Kabrabam Dhirendra Debbarma, Adv.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. Raju Datta, P.P.
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE BISWAJIT PALIT
Order
01/08/2025
This bail application under Section 483 of BNSS, 2023
is filed for granting release of accused Bapi Das on bail in
connection with Pecharthal PS Case No.013 of 2025 (2025PTL013)
under Section 22(C) of NDPS Act, 1985 and Section 192(A) of
M.V. Act.
Heard Learned Senior Counsel, Mr. S. Sarkar assisted by
Learned Counsel, Mr. K. D. Debbarma appearing on behalf of the
accused person in custody and also heard Learned P.P., Mr. Raju
Datta appearing on behalf of the State-respondent.
As ordered earlier received the record from the Learned Trial
Court and Learned P.P. also has produced the CD.
In course of hearing, Learned Senior Counsel appearing for
the accused has drawn the attention of the Court that in this case
the ground of arrest is not communicated to the accused referring
the arrest memo. Learned Senior Counsel further drawn the
attention of the Court that nothing was communicated to the
accused in writing and in support of his contention he relied upon
three judgments of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India and urged
for releasing the accused on bail in any condition.
On the other hand, Learned P.P. appearing for the State-
respondent opposed the submission made by Learned Senior
Counsel for the accused and submitted that in the case at hand
the contraband item was directly seized from the possession of
the accused on that relevant day. The accused could not show any
valid documents in support of possession of the same and prior to
arrest the I.O. conducted pre-search in presence of witnesses
served pre-search notice to the accused under Section 50 of NDPS
Act and the signature of the accused was also taken. Furthermore,
on the seizure list, the signature of the accused was obtained at
the time of the seizure and on the same day the accused was
taken into custody in connection with this case and on the
following day he was produced before the Court when he was
defended by his engaged Learned Counsel.
Learned P.P. further submitted that the entire process was
conducted in presence of the accused so, there is no scope on his
part at this stage to say that the ground of arrest was not
communicated to the accused. So, Learned P.P. urged for
rejection of the bail application.
In this case, prosecution was set into motion on the basis of
an FIR laid by Sri Lalruata Darlong, SI of Police, Pecharthal PS,
Unakoti, Tripura to OC, Pecharthal Police Station, Unakoti, Tripura
alleging inter alia that on 21.06.2025 at about 1305 hrs he
received one secret information that huge quantity of contraband
articles i.e. cough syrup was coming from Guwahati by a bus
bearing No.AS01-LC-1412 (Night Super Bus) through NH-8 road
which will proceed towards Agartala. Immediately, the matter was
entered in Pecharthal PS GD Entry No.16 dated 21.06.2025. The
informant also immediately informed the matter to the higher
authority of the police and made necessary GD Entries.
Thereafter, SI along with Inspector Suman Acharjee and other
staff laid an ambush at the Pecharthal PS Naka point. On their
arrival after 15 to 20 minutes the said bus (Night Super) came
and accordingly, search was conducted. He detained the driver
when he disclosed his name as Bapi Das and that time SDPO,
Kumarghat and Executive Magistrate also appeared to the spot
and accompanied in the search process. Before search the I.O.
prepared a pre-search memo in presence of witnesses and driver
of the vehicle and after that in presence of local available
independent witnesses he searched the vehicle. In course of
search he found 12 cartoons inside the vehicle and 1790 nos.
bottles of Eskuf cough syrup having different batch number.
Thereafter, he did all formalities and arrested the accused. Being
asked the driver stated that he loaded the cough syrup from
Guwahati with intention to deliver at Agartala. He has drawn
samples from the seized cartoons of cough syrup and after that he
returned to PS and laid the FIR.
Notice was also served to the accused after obtaining his
signature under Section 50 of NDPS Act. On the following day he
was forwarded to the Court of Learned Special Judge i.e. on
22.06.2025 and since then he is lodging in custody.
I have heard detailed argument of both the sides and gone
through the citations, since the contraband items was directly
recovered from the presence of the accused and in support of
possession he could not show any satisfactory documents to the
police and as such he was taken into custody and the entire
process of search and seizure was made in presence of the
accused. So, the plea taken by the accused that the ground of
arrest was not communicated to him cannot be accepted at this
stage. The investigation of the case is in progress. So, considering
all at this stage, I find no scope to release the accused on bail.
Hence, this bail application is rejected. The accused is to
remain in J/C as before.
Return back the CD to I.O. through Learned P.P. along with a
copy of this order.
Send down the record of the Learned Trial Court along with a
copy of this order.
JUDGE
Amrita
AMRITA DEB DEB
Date: 2025.08.02 10:46:19
+05'30'
