Manoranjan Barman v. State Of West Bengal

13.02.2024 Item No.110 Ct. No. 29 CHC Allowed C.R.M.(A) 5251 of 2023 In Re:- An application for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in connection with Hili Police Station Case No. 10 of 2023 dated 19.01.2023 under Sections 21(c)/22(c)/23(c)/27A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

And In the matter of : Manoranjan Barman ...... petitioner Mr. Kaushik Chowdhury, Ms. Bursa Khatun ....for the petitioner Mr. Suman De ....for the State Report as called for by the order dated January 31, 2024 filed in Court be taken on record.

Police at this stage are unable to demonstrate any nexus between the petitioner and the person arrested with the commercial quantity of narcotics and/or seized commercial quantity of narcotics.

Police apparently are proceeding on the basis of the statement of the accused made while in custody. In such circumstances, we are of the view that, petitioner is able to overcome the restrictions under Section 37 of the N.D.P.S. Act, 1985. Consequently, we grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner.

Accordingly, we direct that in the event of arrest the petitioner shall be released on bail upon furnishing a bond of Rs.10,000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand only), with two sureties of like amount each, to the satisfaction of the arresting officer and also be subject to the conditions as laid down under Section 438(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and on further condition that the petitioner will report before the Investigating Officer once in a week till the conclusion of investigation and on condition that the petitioner shall appear on every date before the jurisdictional Court on and from the date fixed for appearance of the accused and in default the jurisdictional Court will pass appropriate order to secure the presence of the petitioner in Court including cancelling the anticipatory bail granted without further reference to this Court. This application for anticipatory bail is, thus, allowed. CRM(A) 5251 of 2023 is disposed of.

(Debangsu Basak, J.) (Md. Shabbar Rashidi, J.)