‘Menace in society’: Man who imported drugs from abroad denied bail again

The drugs arrived via post and were seized from the post office

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: A man from Uttar Pradesh who was arrested in the city a year ago for importing banned narcotics drugs through the post has been denied bail by the High Court a second time. The accused, Anil Kumar Pandey, from Basti district, Uttar Pradesh, was arrested in August 2021 by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

He and another accused had imported 493.5 grams of MDMA narcotics. The drugs arrived via post and were seized from the post office. The post was to be delivered to Anil Kumar Pandey. He was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the case is pending before a special court for NDPS cases in Bengaluru.

Pandey’s bail plea was rejected by the HC in May this year, after which he filed a successive bail petition. It was claimed that the first accused in the case was released on bail, and Pandey also sought bail on similar grounds.

The NCB advocate, however, informed the court that the agency had filed for the cancellation of bail of the other accused. Rejecting the successive bail plea, Justice HP Sandesh, in his judgement said,

“Having considered the material available on record, the seized quantity of the manufactured drug is MDMA 493.5 grams and commercial quantity is only 10 grams and the seized MDMA manufactured drug is 50 times more than the commercial quantity. When such being the case, the prima facie material found against the petitioner is that he has indulged along with accused No.1 in getting the manufactured drug that too in his name and phone number given also belongs to this petitioner.”

The HC said that under the NDPS, the accused has to prove that he is not guilty. “I do not find any ground to consider his bail application in a successive bail petition and the Court has to take note of Section 37 of the NDPS Act, wherein the burden is on the petitioner to make out a case that he is not guilty,” it said.

The HC said that the NDPS law was stringent to protect the interests of the country. “The very object of bringing the NDPS Act into force is to combat the menace in society. The scope and object of the enactment are when the IPC offences are inadequate to meet the challenges of drug transportation, which affects society at large, it is not an offence against an individual and it affects the young minds of the country, and the same is also observed in the judgement of the Apex Court.

Hence, I do not find any grounds to enlarge him on bail.” The contention that Pandey was in custody for more than a year “is also not a ground when the offence committed against the petitioner is an offence against the society at large, and it affects the entire society, not an individual, and the quantity is also 50 times more than the commercial quantity,” the HC said, adding, “Hence, I do not find any merit in the successive bail petition to enlarge him on bail.”