Tripura High Court
Smt. Rimi Gope Biswas vs The State Of Tripura on 21 July, 2025
HIGH COURT OF TRIPURA
AGARTALA
BA No.55 of 2025
Smt. Rimi Gope Biswas,
W/O: Mangaldip Biswas,
Resident of Joynagar, Dashamighat,
P.S. West Agartala,
District: West Tripura, 799 001
---Applicant on behalf of
accused person in
custody
Sri Mangaldip Biswas,
S/O Late Chandan Biswas,
Resident of Joynagar, Dashamighat,
P.S. West Agartala,
District: West Tripura, 799 001
---Accused person in
custody
-Vs-
The State of Tripura
---Respondent
For Applicant(s) : Mr. Subrata Sarkar, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Arpan Jamatia, Adv.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. Raju Datta, P.P.
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE BISWAJIT PALIT
Order
21/07/2025
This bail application under Section 483 of BNSS is filed for
granting bail to the accused in custody namely Mangaldip Biswas
in connection with West Agartala P.S. Case No.2025 WAG 032
under Section 22(c)/25/29 of NDPS Act.
Heard Learned Senior Counsel Mr. S. Sarkar assisted by Mr.
A. Jamatia, Learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the accused in
custody and also heard Learned Addl. P.P. appearing for the State.
Learned P.P. also produced the Case Diary as ordered earlier.
Learned Senior Counsel at this stage drawn the attention of
the Court referring the contents of the FIR and submitted that the
ground of arrest was not communicated to the accused. He further
submitted that the accused is a businessman of the concerned
area of Battala market but that has not been reflected in the
forwarding report of I.O. or in the FIR also and furthermore the
name and status of the Gazetted Officer has not been mentioned
in the forwarding report which shows clear violation of the
provision of Section-57 of the NDPS Act. Furthermore in view of
the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Prabir
Purkayastha vs. State (NCT of Delhi dated May 15, 2024)
reported in (2024) 8 SCC 254, Pankaj Bansal vs. Union of
India and Ors. reported in 2024 7 SCC 576 and Vihaan Kumar
vs. State of Haryana & Anr. reported in 2025 SCC OnLine 269
he submitted that since the ground of arrest was not
communicated for which the accused is required to be released on
bail in any condition.
On the other hand, Learned P.P. strongly opposed the
submission made by Learned Senior Counsel and submitted that in
this case there was no clear violation of the provision of Section-
42 and Section-57 of NDPS Act and furthermore the ground of
arrest was duly communicated in writing to the accused supplying
copy to him. He further submitted that after conducting pre-
search memo seizure was made and notice was served, so there is
no scope to release the accused on bail in any condition.
Furthermore, the accused in custody is a habitual offender,
against him there is another case and more so in the search
memo and pre-search memo signature of the accused was
obtained and the contraband items were directly seized from his
possession. So there is no scope on the part of the accused in
custody to take a plea that he had no knowledge or he was not
informed the ground of his arrest and finally urged for rejection of
the bail application.
In this case the prosecution was set into motion on the basis
of an FIR laid by one Manik Biswas, SI of Police on 04.04.2025 to
O.C. West Agartala Police Station alleging inter alia that on
04.04.2025 on the basis of secret telepohonic information that one
Mangaldip Biswas was selling huge quantities of contraband
narcotic drug to the other drug peddlers at Battala super market
area. The matter was reduced into Battala TOP GDE No.14 dated
04.04.2025. The information was conveyed to O/C West Agartala
P.S., S.D.P.O. Sadar and also SP, West Tripura over telephone as
well as R/G. Thereafter he along with other staff along with NDPS
kits, weight machine, seal, gala rushed to the P.O. to verify the
information and chalked out plan to detain the person at about
2125 hours and accordingly he went to P.O. i.e. Battala Super
Market and was waiting for some time and at about 2310 hours
found him available in the said place. After that he along with staff
managed to detain him and on being asked he admitted his name
as Mangaldip Biswas. Thereafter as per direction of O/C, West
Agartala P.S. Inspector L. Darlong came to the spot and then in
presence of Gazetted Officer he issued notice to him under
Section-50 of the NDPS Act and then arranged for their checking
after preparing pre-search memo in presence of witnesses and
then conducted search to his body after preparing search memo in
presence of witnesses and in course of search recovered one
transparent plastic spouse containing 2000 nos. pinkish colour
approximately 200 gms and suspected to be YABA tablets which is
collected from 10 nos of small black colour zip packet, one light
green colour shop case containing one transparent plastic spouse
which filled with brown like coloured powder weighting
approximately 11.97 grms suspected to be heroin, one black
colour Nokia keypad phone, cash amount Rs.840/- and after
conducting preliminary test of powder substances by drug
detection kit. The preliminary test indicated the positive presence
of Heroin in said powder like substance and YABA tablet. After that
he seized the said recovered articles in presence of witnesses and
took the accused to their custody and laid FIR. On the basis of the
FIR the case was registered.
I have perused the CD very carefully. The investigation of
the case is in progress. The accused is lodging in jail on and from
05.04.2025. From the CD it appears that the ground of arrest was
duly communicated to the accused by supplying copy to him and
furthermore on perusal of the statement of witnesses it appears
that the contraband item was directly recovered from his
possession and the signatures were taken on all the relevant
papers. I have also gone through the citations referred by Learned
Senior Counsel appearing for the accused-applicant. It appears to
this Court that at this stage there is no scope to apply the
principles of said citations in this case and since prima facie it
appears to this Court that there was no violation from the side of
the I.O. Moreso, the case is at the very initial stage and the seized
item is of commercial quantity and there is also another case
pending against the present accused in custody. So in view of the
submissions made by Learned Counsels of both the sides I do not
find any scope to presume the accused in custody to be innocent
in view of the provision provided under Section-37 of the NDPS
Act and it appears to this Court that there is no scope to consider
the twins condition as mentioned in Section-37 of NDPS Act and
accordingly the bail application filed stands rejected. The accused
is to remain in J/C as before.
Send down the record to the Learned Trial Court along with
a copy of this order.
Return back the CD to the I.O. through Learned Addl. P.P.
along with a copy of this order.
In view of the above, this bail application stands disposed of.
JUDGE
MOUMITA Digitally signed by
MOUMITA DATTA
DATTA Date: 2025.07.22
03:10:06 +05'30'
Moumita
