Banned drugs: High Court denies bail to pharma unit owner

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court has denied bail to Pardipt Chaudhary, owner of a Karnal-based pharmaceutical company that is facing charges of manufacturing and supplying banned drugs to Punjab. In a raid conducted on October 7-8, 2013, a special investigation team (SIT) of Punjab police had seized drugs worth Rs 100 crore from the factory. The raid was conducted after the cops busted the multi-crore drug racket in Punjab in which Arjuna awardee Jagdish Bhola was involved.
The court, however, has granted bail to Pardipt's 73-year-old father Prithvi Singh, considering his age and ailing health conditions.
A division bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice A B Chaudhari passed the order on July 4 while dismissing a plea filed by Pardipt. Punjab police had registered two cases against Pardipt and his father in Patiala and Ludhiana on September 18-19 under various sections of the NDPS Act and the IPC for illegal possession of psychotropic substance, forgery and criminal conspiracy. Pardipt was the sole proprietor of M/s Pioneer Laboratories having its premises at Rishi Nagar, Sector 16, Karnal.
While cracking down on sale of cosmetic drugs over the counter in Punjab, the police had arrested several persons in Ludhiana. A large quantity of illegal drugs were seized from them and during investigation, they disclosed that synthetic drugs were being manufactured at a Karnal factory. Following this, the police raided the petitioner's factory and recovered huge quantity of intoxicant capsules and tablets. An Innova car owned by Prithvi Singh was also found parked inside the factory premises.
Both Pardipt and his father were arrested on May 1, 2015. Seeking bail, the petitioners argued that they have been falsely implicated as they refused to pay Rs 1 crore demanded by two persons on October 5, 2013, on behalf of Punjab police officials. They also argued that Punjab police has no territorial jurisdiction to implicate them and conduct search and seizure proceedings.
Opposing the bail plea, the Punjab government had submitted that the petitioners were likely to flee. The bench observed, "As per the allegations, huge quantity of illicit drugs and intoxicant material manufactured in the factory has been recovered in Punjab as well as from the factory premises during search and seizure. There are serious allegations of misuse of the controlled substance allocated for manufacturing life-saving drugs. The rigours of Section 37(1)(b) are surely attracted against the first petitioner. The instant petition qua him is, thus, dismissed."
The HC, however, granted bail to Prithvi Singh on the ground that his car was not at his residence, rather was parked in the factory premises. "It would be possible to form a definite view only after the evidence is led as to whether or not he had informed knowledge of the contraband lying in his vehicle," observed the HC while granting him bail.