Mumbai: Parents and a brother facing prosecution under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act cannot be grounds to deny relief to a person, the Bombay High Court has said.
Justice Manish Pitale granted bail to Wasi Ansari who was arrested in February 9, 2021, after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) recovered 357 grams of Mephedrone (MD) and 30 grams of ganja from his flat, and 55 grams MD on him when they apprehended him while driving a car.
“The fact that the parents and brother of the applicant are facing prosecution for offences under the NDPS Act, cannot be a ground to deny relief to the applicant, as he has made out a case in his favour,” the judge said.
The investigation was completed, and charges were framed in February 2024.
Ansari contended that the recovery from the flat and his person was vitiated, as the documents on record revealed that the mandatory requirements of the law were not satisfied. When NCB officers reached his apartment, the door was locked. Nonetheless, the officer obtained a second key from the building’s secretary and opened the apartment.
The NCB cited a Supreme Court judgment which observed that drug abuse is a social malady and that accused persons indulging in such nefarious activities should not escape on technical pleas.
However, the HC remarked that the manner in which the officials entered the apartment raised serious doubts about the recovery.
Raising “serious suspicion” over the manner in the officials seized contraband from Ansari’s flat, the HC said: “Recovery of contraband in such a manner, whereby the door of the flat was opened using a second key, provided by the secretary of the society, where the flat was located, is a factor that inures to the benefit of the applicant and it creates a serious doubt about the recovery of contraband from the said flat.”
NCB claimed that they informed him that they will search him, the applicant voluntarily took out the contraband from his pocket and handed it to the officers.
“..it was incumbent upon the said official… to inform the applicant about his right to be searched in the presence of a Gazetted Officer or Magistrate. The said requirement could not have been circumvented,” the court added.
It directed Ansari’s release on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000.
