HC grants bail to drug peddler

Srinagar, Jun 12: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has granted bail to a drug peddler after concluding that there were reasonable grounds for believing that the accused was not guilty of the offence of possessing a commercial quantity of contraband drugs.

A bench of Justice Sanjay Dhar, while granting bail to Touseef Ahmad Khan of Batamaloo, who was booked by police NDPS Act in 2023, also noted that the authorities had not placed on record any material to show that Khan had any previous history of having indulged in trade of illicit drugs.

The court observed that even no material was placed on record to show that in case Khan was admitted to bail, he was likely to commit similar offences.  “Thus, the petitioner (Khan) has succeeded in carving out a prima facie case for grant of bail in his favour”.

Khan through his counsel Abu Owais Pandit, had sought bail in a case arising out of FIR No.37/2023 for offences under Section 8/21, 29 of NDPS Act registered with Police Station, Batamaloo, which is pending before the Court of Special Judge (NDPS Cases), Srinagar.

As per the prosecution case, on April 2,2023, an information was received by Police Station, Batamaloo here from reliable sources that Khan was indulging in illicit trade of drugs and that the co-accused Jasid Manzoor and Sunil Kumar were also involved in the trade. It was reported to police that the trio was indulging in the sale of narcotic drugs to children.