Sagar Laskar v. State Of West Bengal

03.08.2022 Sl. No.9 akd [Rejected] C. R. M. (NDPS) 883 of 2022 In Re: An application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure filed on 29.07.2022 in connection with Gopal Nagar Police Station Case No. 639 dated 21.11.2019 under Section 21(c) of the NDPS Act. (NDPS Case No.223 of 2019) And In Re: Sagar Laskar ... ... Petitioner Mr. Arnab Chatterjee Mr. Nimai Roy Ms. Dhanasree Biswas ... ... for the petitioner Mr. Ranabir Roy Chowdhury Mr. Mainak Gupta ... ... for the State It is submitted on behalf of the petitioner that he is in custody for about two years and eight months. It is further submitted there is slow progress in the trial of the case.

Learned advocate appearing for the State opposes the prayer for bail.

We have considered the materials on record. Statements of witnesses including contemporaneous document i.e. seizure memo disclose recovery of narcotic substance i.e. 5.3 ltrs. of codeine mixture, which is above commercial quantity from the petitioner. In view of the aforesaid fact and statutory restrictions under Section 37 of the NDPS Act, we are not inclined in granting bail to the petitioner. The application for bail is thus rejected.

However, in view of the protracted period of detention suffered by the petitioner, we direct the trial court to expedite the trial and conclude the same at an early date preferably within one year from the

next date fixed for recording evidence without granting unnecessary adjournments to either of the parties.

(Ananya Bandyopadhyay, J.) (Joymalya Bagchi, J.)