Peddler gets 12-year RI for keeping intoxicants

Ludhiana: A special court here recently sentenced a drug peddler to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment for conscious possession of 16,000 intoxicant tablets. Judge Manila Chugh also slapped a Rs 1 lakh fine on the convict, failing to pay which he will have to undergo one more year of rigorous imprisonment.On Sep 2, 2022, Samrala police filed a case against Bittu from Bihar's Muzaffarpur, Kuldeep Singh from Dhaliwal Tehsil and Kanwaljit Singh from Badesh in Gurdaspur, under the NDPS Act.A police party led by SI Avtar Singh was patrolling the Neelon canal bridge when they spotted a man standing under the bridge with a backpack. When he saw the police, the man started walking towards Doraha. The SI apprehended him on suspicion. He identified himself as Bittu. A search yielded 200 strips of 10,000 intoxicating tablets and 100 more strips, totalling 6,000 tablets.Kuldeep Singh was nominated in the case after Bittu's interrogation. Later, Kanwaljit Singh was nominated in the case. During trial, the accused claimed to have been implicated. The court, after appreciating the evidence on record, concluded that the prosecution succeeded in proving the charge framed against accused Bittu. However, it held that admittedly, no recovery of any contraband was effected from the possession of Kuldeep Singh or from Kanwaljit Singh, and they were nominated on the basis of the statements of the co-accused.The court observed that the prosecution thus failed to prove its case against accused Kuldeep Singh and Kanwaljit Singh under Section 29 of the NDPS Act.MSID:: 118603644 413 |