City youth orders drugs from Netherlands; denied bail

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A special court for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) cases has denied bail to a 24-year-old Bengaluru youth who had purchased narcotic drugs from the Netherlands.

His consignment arrived in Bengaluru and was discovered by the police. Denying him the bail, the XXXIII ACC & SJ & Special Judge BS Jayashree said, “it is clear that no person shall be granted bail unless the two conditions are satisfied, i.e., the satisfaction of the court that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the petitioner is not guilty and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail.

Here in the present case the petitioner has booked the contraband parcel from a foreign country.” Further the Court noted that “The quantity of the contraband is commercial quantity. At this stage, there are prima facie material available against the petitioner in regard to the knowledge of contraband which is being booked by him is a banned narcotics. In the result, I proceed to hold that the petitioner herein has not made out any grounds to entertain his plea for bail.”

Hemanth Patil had approached the Special Court for bail claiming that he was falsely implicated in the case.

He also claimed that he had lost his sister recently and his mother had health issues. His father had undergone a surgery and he had to look after them. The prosecution opposed the bail stating that on March, 10, 2023 the National Crime Bureau had seized 70 grams of psilocybin from a shipment received at the Foreign Post Office in Bengaluru and the said shipment was booked by Patil.

He had booked the contraband from the Netherlands in his own name. The prosecution feared that “in the event of grant of bail, he would abscond and may hamper the investigation.” Patil had told the police in his statement that he had booked the drugs for his self-consumption.

The court said that the accused knew the consequences of his actions.

“On looking at the statement of petitioner and the materials collected by the investigating agency the petitioner herein having knowledge of the psilocybin which is a banned contraband has booked the parcel of psilocybin through the website. He is having knowledge of the consequences of law while booking the parcel of contraband from a foreign country,” the Court said while denying him bail.