HIGH COURT FOR THE STATE OF TELANGANA AT HYDERABAD TUESDAY, THE ELEVENTH DAY OF MARCH TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE PRESENT

THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE J SREENIVAS RAO

CRIMINAL PETITION NO: 3149 OF 2025

Between:

A2. Durgesh Singh, S/o. Satyanarayana singh aged about 32 years Occ. Pvt. Employee R/o. 13-1-565/1. Dilwarguni, Upper Dhoolpet, Hyderabad. ...PETITIONER/ACCUSED NO.2

AND

The State of Telangana, Through SH9. Pro ibition and Excise Dhoolpet. Rep by its Public Prosecutor, High Court of Telangana at Hyderabad

...RESPONDENT/COMPLAINANT

$[3303]$

Petition under Sections 480 & 483 of BNSS, praying that in the circumstances stated in the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition, the High Court may be pleased to enlarge the Petitioner/Accused No.2 on bail in connection with the Crime FIR. No.03/2025 of Excise P.S Dhoolpet.,;

This Petition coming on for hearing, upon perusing the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition and upon hearing the arguments of Sri M Prashanth, Advocate representing Sri K SUNIL CHOWDARY, Advocate for the Petitioner and Sri Syed Yasar Mamoon, Addl. Public Prosecutor on behalf of the Respondent;

The Court made the following: ORDER

THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE J. SREENTVAS RAO

CRIMINAL PEfITION No. 3149 of 2O2!i

ORDER:

/.',

This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 480 rrnd 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short, BNSSJ by the petitioner, who is arrayed as accused No.2, seeking bailin Crime No. 3 of 2025 of Excise Station, Dhoolpet, for the offenc,:s punishable under Sections 8(c) read with Section 22(b)(ii)(c) of the llarcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (for short .NDPS ActJ.

2. Heard Sri M.Prashanth, learned counsel, represerrting Sri K.Sunil Chowdary, learned counsel for the petitioner anl Sri Syed Yasar Mamoon, learned Additional public prosecutor appearing for respondent-State.

3. The case of prosecution in brief is that on 09.01. ZO25 at about O1-15 p.m. on credible information, the prohibition an,i Excise Sub_ Inspector, Excise Police Station, Dhoolpet, Hyderabad a .ong with staff conducted raid at H.No. 13-l-565/ l, Dilawargunj, Upper Dhoolpet, Hyderabad and found that accused Nos.l and 2 n suspicious circumstances, apprehended them and seized 2 l .O l O kgs., of ganja from their house.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted thal the petitioner is innocent arld te did not commit the alleged offenc,: and he was

falsely implicated in the above said crime and he was arrested on 09.1.2025 and since then he has been in judicial custody and he is ready to cooperate with the investigation.

Learned Additional Public Prosecutor submitted that 21.010 $5.$ kgs. of ganja was seized in this case, which is a commercial quantity and the investigation is not yet completed and therefore, the petitioner is not entitled for grant of bail at this juncture.

6. Having considered the rival submissions made by the respective parties and after perusal of the material available on record, it reveals that the police seized the contraband of 21.010 kgs. of ganja, which is a commercial quantity. At this stage, it is pertinent to note Section 37 of the NDPS Act, which reads as under:

"37. Offences to be cognizable and non-bailable. -- (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974),--(a) every offence punishable under this Act shall be cognizable;

$(b)$ $no$ person accused $\quad\text{ of }\quad$ an offence punishable for 1[offences under section 19 or section 24 or section 27A and also for offences involving commercial quantity] shall be released on bail or on his own bond unless-

the Public Prosecutor has been given an $(i)$ opportunity to oppose the application for such release, and

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$(ii)$ 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.

(2) The limitations on granting of bail specified in clause (b) of sub-section (1) are in addition to the limitations under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) or any other law for the time being in force on granting of bail."

$7.$ In view thereof. Section 37 of the NDPS $Act$ mandates that offences involving commercial quantities be nonbailable, requiring reasonable grounds to believe the accused is not guilty and unlikely to commit further offences while on bail. Hence, since the allegations levelled against the petitioner are serious in nature, this Court is not satisfied that conditions for granting bail under Section 37 are met. Therefore, the criminal petition lacks merit and the same is liable to be dismissed.

Accordingly, this Criminal Petition is dismissec. 8.

As a sequel thereto, miscellaneous applications, if any, pending in this petition stand closed.

I/TRUE COPY//

SECTION OFFICER

SD/- MOHD. ISMAIL DEPUTY REGISTRAR

To,

• The I Addl. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hyderabad
• 2. The Addl. Judicial First Class Magistrate, Nampally, Hyderabad
• 3. The Superintendent, Central Prison, Chanchalguda
• 4. The Station House Officer, Dhoolpet Prohibition & Excise P.S., Hyderabad
• 5. One CC to SRI K SUNIL CHOWDARY Advocate [OPUC]
• 6. Two CCs to PUBLIC PROSECUTOR, High Court at Hyderabad (OUT)
• 7. Two CD Copies

VSM/gh

YQS

HIGH COURT

DATED:11/03/2025

ORDER

CRLP.No.3149 of 2025

DISMISSING THE CRIMINAL PETITION

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