Saurabh Malik
Chandigarh, March 30
Referring to drug menace, the Punjab and Haryana High Court asserted that tramadol tablets are in use in “large numbers” in both Punjab and Haryana and the source is required to be looked into. The assertion came as Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri of the High Court dismissed bail plea of an accused after observing that custodial interrogation was required to track down the source.
Justice Puri observed the source from where the tablets emanated was required to be ascertained. “Therefore, the argument raised by the state counsel carries weight that for the purpose of elicitation of truth, the custodial interrogation of the petitioner is required in order to know the actual source of the intoxicant tablets,” Justice Puri added.
Tramadol is synthetic opioid drug used to treat moderate to moderately severe pain. The matter was brought to Justice Puri’s notice after the accused filed a petition for anticipatory bail in an FIR registered on June 4, 2021, under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act at Barnala police station.
Justice Puri’s Bench, during the course of arguments, was told that the police party apprehended a co-accused. It was added that the recovered quantity of 711.82 grams of tramadol fell under the category of commercial quantity.
Taking up the matter, Justice Puri observed the petitioner’s name was nominated (as an accused) at the “fourth or the fifth level”. The sequence of events in the present case indicated that the first accused to be arrested “disclosed the source from three persons and this is how the name of the petitioner cropped up at fourth level”. It was true that the disclosure statement of a co-accused was not admissible in evidence. But the sequence and chain of events in the present case suggested that the basic source of tramadol tablets was required to be ascertained.
Before parting with the order, Justice Puri asserted the counsel for the petitioner had not been able to make out any ground for making a departure from the bar contained under Section 37 of the NDPS Act.
Section 37 makes it clear that severity or strictness in granting bail was applicable to offences involving commercial quantity. It indicates that no person accused of an offence punishable under this law “shall be released on bail or on his own bond unless — the public prosecutor has been given an opportunity to oppose the application for such release and where the public prosecutor opposes the application, the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail.”
Track source
- The assertion came as Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri dismissed bail plea of an accused
- Justice Puri observed the source from where the tablets emanated was required to be ascertained
Tramadol used in ‘large numbers’ in Punjab Haryana: HC
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