Gauhati High Court: Recovery of drugs not essential for conviction

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: In a development that has important ramifications for Assam Police's ongoing war against drugs, the Gauhati High Court has observed that recovery of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances is not essential for prosecuting or even convicting persons charged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

The Court's made this observation while rejecting a petition for anticipatory bail filed by a person who was on interim bail after being charged with trying to illegally transport 44,160 bottles of Eskuf cough syrup in a truck in 2020 (in connection with Basistha Police Station case No.1023).

The Court stated: "The offence involved in this case is one under the NDPS Act and the quantity involved is a commercial quantity. The contraband involved is also (a) chemical manufactured drug… This Court finds force in the submission of the learned Additional Public Prosecutor, Assam that offences under the NDPS Act are part of an organized crime wherein different roles are played by different accused persons. Therefore, recovery or seizure cannot be held to be a sine qua non for the arrest /detention or even for conviction if there are other convincing and corroborating materials, which in the present case are abundantly available."

Further, while rejecting the bail petition, the court observed: "…Taking into consideration the very object of the enactment (of the NDPS Act), namely to curb the menace of drugs and its ill effects on the society which has the propensity to destroy the generation as a whole, this Court is of the opinion that no case for grant of anticipatory bail is made out."

The court, however, made it clear that the observations made by it are tentative in nature and will not cause prejudice to either of the parties in the trial.

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