Drug smuggling case in Gujarat: 500kg heroin accused wants 30-day bail to save marriage; plea rejected

AHMEDABAD: A special NIA court in Ahmedabad refused to release an accused in a 500kg heroin smuggling case on temporary bail after he sought a 30-day release to convince his wife not to seek divorce.Accused Manzoor Ahmed Mir from Jammu and Kashmir was arrested along with others by the Gujarat ATS in Oct 2018 in connection with the seizure of 500kg heroin, which was allegedly smuggled from Pakistan to India via the sea route.The consignment was delivered to an Indian vessel named "Nagani Mustufa" in Indian maritime waters. Since then, he was in prison, with all the courts refusing him regular bail. NIA took over the probe in this case, considering the alleged spread of the drug traffickers' network and the gravity of the offence.Mir filed an application for 30-day bail, submitting, "As the applicant is not able to maintain his wife, due to grudge, his wife filed a divorce petition, and the applicant wants to convince his wife not to take divorce from him."He also maintained his innocence, stating that he is a trader dealing in fruits, vegetables, carpets and shawls, and had nothing to do with this contraband consignment.NIA opposed Mir's bail plea by submitting that, in his earlier bail plea in Oct, Mir raised the contention regarding his wife's divorce application, but the court rejected his plea. As he filed another bail plea, the court ordered police verification, and the report sent by the Beerwah police station in J&K confirmed that after Mir's arrest, his wife had left the matrimonial home.It also suggested that Mir can contest the divorce petition through video conference or through his mother, maternal uncle or his sisters. The probe agency strongly objected to his demand for release to convince his wife to retract her decision for separation.NIA emphasised the stringent provisions for bail under Section 37 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS). After hearing the arguments, the court stated, "Taking into consideration the provisions of Section 37 of the NDPS Act and more particularly two conditions mentioned therein, the applicant cannot be granted temporary bail even for a day… As there are no sufficient grounds to consider the application, the present application is required to be rejected."