Bechan Mandal v. State Of West Bengal

CRM 7009 of 2020 24.09.2020 With CRAN 1 of 2020 (Via Video Conference) Ct. No. 16 Item no. 08 (REJECTED) akd In Re:- An application for bail under section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure filed on 14.09.2020 in connection with Karandighi Police Station Case no. 36 of 2017 dated 19.01.2017 under Sections 21/23 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (N.D.P.S. Case No. 02 of 2017) And In the matter of : Bechan Mandal

...Petitioner

Ms. Sonali Das.

...For the Petitioner.

Mr. Rana Mukherjee, Mr. Santanu Chatterjee.

...For the State.

Petitioner undertakes to affirm and stamp the petition/ application as per Rules within 48 hours of resumption of normal functioning of the Court. Subject to such undertaking, the application is taken up for hearing through video conference. The application being CRAN 01 of 2020 is accordingly disposed of.

It is submitted by the learned Advocate for the petitioner that although the petitioner is in jail for nearly 2 years and 3 months, yet no substantial progress has been seen in the case and, therefore, the petitioner should be released on bail. The learned Counsel for the State opposes the prayer for bail. It is submitted that the trial has commenced and several witnesses have already been examined.

After hearing the respective Counsels and taking into account that the commercial quantity of contraband has been recovered from the possession of the petitioner, we do not feel that the petitioner has been able to make out a case for an exception under Section 37 of the N.D.P.S. Act. The prayer for bail is thus rejected. However, we request the learned Judge of the Special Court to make efforts to bring

the case to its logical conclusion at the earliest. With such findings, the application, being CRM 7009 of 2020, is dismissed.

(Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, J) (Harish Tandon, J)