Calcutta High CourtCRM(NDPS)/456/2023allowed

Anant Grover v. The State Of West Bengal

2023-07-12Hon'Ble Justice Arijit Banerjee,Hon'Ble Justice Partha Sarathi Sen3 pages

12.07.2023 Item no.68.

Court No.01.

S. De (Allowed) Circuit Bench of Calcutta High Court at Jalpaiguri CRM (NDPS) No. 456 of 2023 In Re: An Application for Bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure filed on 06.06.2023 in connection with Bagdogra Police Station Case No. 586 of 2022 dated 18.12.2022 under Section 20(b)(ii)(c) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

And In the matter of : Anant Grover.

......Petitioner.

Mr. Biswarup Roy, ......for the Petitioner.

Mr. Aditi Shankar Chakraborty, Ld. APP, Mr. Kallol Nag, ......for the State.

Admittedly, commercial quantity of contraband items was recovered from the possession of the petitioner. However, the petitioner says that the Memo of Arrest is irregular. Column 10 has not been signed by any independent witness or relative of the accused but by the de facto complainant himself. This is a complete violation of Section 41(B) Cr.P.C. This is a mandatory requirement as pronounced by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of D.K. Basu Vs. State of West Bengal reported in AIR 1997 Supreme Court 610. Section 41B of Cr.P.C. also mandates that Memo of Arrest shall be witnessed by an independent person. This is a gross illegality which entitles the petitioner to bail.

We have seen the material in the case diary including the Arrest Memo. Indeed, the column no.10 has been signed by the de-facto complainant himself.

Accordingly, we are constrained to hold that the petitioner has been able to overcome the restriction under Section 37 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. We, therefore, allow the petitioner's prayer for bail also considering that chargesheet has been filed after completion of investigation and that the petitioner is in custody since May 2022.

Accordingly, we direct that the petitioner, namely Anant Grover shall be released on bail upon furnishing a bond of Rs.20,000/- with two registered sureties of like amount each, to the satisfaction of the learned Judge, Special Court (under NDPS Act), 2nd Court, Siliguri on condition that the present accused petitioner shall appear before the learned Trial Court on each date of substantive hearing and shall not leave the jurisdiction of the learned Trial Court unless such condition has been relaxed by the learned Trial Court.

In the event the petitioner fails to adhere to any of the conditions stipulated above without justifiable cause, the trial court shall be at liberty to cancel the petitioner's bail in accordance with law without further reference to this Court. Observations made in this order are tentative and only for the purpose of disposing of this bail application. The application for bail is, accordingly, allowed.

All parties shall act in terms of server copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court. (Partha Sarathi Sen, J.) (Arijit Banerjee, J.)