IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU DATED THIS THE 13TH DAY OF AUGUST, 2019 BEFORE THE HON’BLE Mr. JUSTICE K.N. PHANEENDRA CRIMINAL PETITION No. 2538/2019 BETWEEN :
Godwin Ifnayi S/o. Obi Aged about 44 years Passport No. A50263306 Nigerian National (Now in Judicial custody Sub Jail Kolar – 517 247.) … PETITIONER (By Sri. K.S. Vishwanath, Adv.) AND :
State of Karnataka Nangli Police Station Kolar Dist. – 563132 Rep. by SPP High Court of Karnataka Bangalore – 560 001. … RESPONDENT (By Sri. Honnappa, HCGP) ---
This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 439 of Cr.P.C. with a prayer to enlarge the petitioner on bail in Cr.No. 103/2018 and etc.
This Criminal Petition coming on for Orders this day, the Court passed the following;
O R D E R Heard and perused the records.
2. A charge sheet has been laid against the petitioner on the allegations that on 12.05.2018 the respondent police along with their staff went to JSR Toll on National Highway No. 75 within the jurisdiction of Nangli Police Station and they were checking the buses passing through the said Toll. In that context it is said that they have also checked a bus bearing registration No. KA-57-F-1721 – a KSRTC Airawata bus. In the luggage box of the said bus they found bags containing 20 packets of Ganja leaves each containing 2 KGs. They found that the said bags belonged to the accused petitioner and he was transporting the said Ganja leaves without any licence or permission. The said Ganja was worth at Rs.4,00,000/-. On these allegations investigation has been completed and a charge sheet has been filed.
3. Learned counsel for petitioner brought to the notice of this Court that neither qualitative analysis report nor quantitative analysis report has been submitted before the Court along with the charge sheet. Even as on today no such report is available to the Court. Further, added to the above he has drawn the attention of the Court to the mahazar drawn which shows that the Police have seized Ganja leaves. What is the quality of Ganja leaves which was available and what is the exact quantity of the Ganja leaves is not yet made available to the Court even at the time of filing of charge sheet. Even as on today, learned Government Pleader submitted that he has not yet received any FSL report so far as the quality or quantity of the items seized are concerned.
4. Looking to the above said facts and circumstances I am of the opinion that when the Court is not in a position to ascertain whether the quantity of Ganja leaves seized from the custody of the accused crosses the commercial quantity, merely because some Ganja leaves have been seized it cannot be said that the quantity of Ganja leaves exceeded the commercial quantity. Under the above said circumstances, in my opinion, as the charge sheet has already been filed, it is a fit case to enlarge the petitioner on bail on stringent conditions.
The Petition is allowed. Consequently, the petitioner shall be released on bail in connection with Crime No. 103/2018 of Nangli Police Station for the offence punishable under Section 20(B) of NDPS Act and Section 12 of Indian Passport Act which is pending in SPl. NDPS No. 07/2018 on the file of Principal District and Sessions Judge, Kolar, subject to the following conditions:
(i) The petitioner shall execute a personal bond for a sum of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One lakh only) with two sureties for the like-sum to the satisfaction of the jurisdictional Court.
(ii) The petitioner shall not indulge in tampering the prosecution witnesses.
(iii) The petitioner shall appear before the jurisdictional Court on all future hearing dates unless exempted by the Court for any genuine cause.
(iv) The petitioner shall not leave the jurisdiction of the trial Court without prior permission of the Court till the case registered against him is disposed of.
LRS Sd/- JUDGE