The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to a Polish national convicted of selling charas after noting the fact that he has served half the sentence imposed upon him, which is 7.5 years of the total 10 years under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
A Bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Aniruddha Bose heard the bail plea of Jedrezej Jezierski of Poland. For the West Bengal Government, Senior Counsel Anand Grover appeared and submitted that if the accused person has undergone 5 years of 10 years, then on merits he should be granted bail.
Grover submitted that on the question of granting interim bail to Jedrezej Jezierski, he will not persuade this bench. “Even in cases of commercial quantity, merits can be looked into under Section 37 NDPS Act, if half of sentence is served by the accused person in such offences, he should be granted bail. I am not on authoritative view, milord.”
The Bench observed that there should be some kind of uniformity in such cases. Further, the bench said that since notice has already been issued in this matter, it will grant him bail.
The High Court of Calcutta while rejecting the appeal of Jedrezej Jezierski gave the finding that analysis of the evidence of P.W.1 leaves no doubt in the court’s mind that samples were duly drawn from the contraband substance which tested positive to charas. Entire contraband had been sent for chemical examination and its weight was much higher than the minimum sample weight required for such test.
“The petitioner being a foreign national, steps shall be taken to push him back to his origin in accordance with law,” the HC had held. The foreign national’s counsel contended that the search and seizure in the case was not in accordance with law.
A secret tip was received by SI, Narcotic Cell, Detective Department Lalbazar, Kolkata about the arrival of foreigner near to Jotindra Mohan Avenue for selling the drug. The raiding team along with weighing scale, narcotic drug testing kits, packing materials etc. was led to the spot by a source. The suspect disclosed his identity and stated that he is coming from Poland and was residing at Modern Lodge at 1, Stuart Lane, Kolkata-16. Offer was given to the appellant to be searched in presence of a Magistrate or Gazetted Officer. He agreed to be searched in presence of a Gazetted Officer. No Gazetted Officer was found in the locality and the matter was informed to superior officer.
During the search, 1 old black coloured backpack with multiple chambers was recovered. On opening the big chamber, four rectangle cube-shaped slabs of deep brown colour each placed inside transparent polythene packet and wrapped with brown coloured adhesive tape with characteristic smell was recovered and one metallic dagger fitted with metallic/wooden butt was recovered from the small chamber of the bagpack. Identity card of the appellant, one small digital weighing machine and some cash were also recovered. The said drug came to be charas and the weight of such drug came out to be 1.954 kg.
The appellant was arrested and taken to the PS along with seized articles. Seized contraband was sent for chemical examination and upon receipt of chemical examination report charge sheet was filed against the appellant. Charge was framed against him under Section 20(b)(ii))(C) of the NDPS Act.