Pintu Mondal vs The State of West Bengal (02/05/2023)

ITEM NO.6 COURT NO.5 SECTION II-B

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 2776/2023
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 19-09-2022 in CRM (NDPS) No. 1050/2022 passed by the High Court At Calcutta)

PINTU MONDAL Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL Respondent(s)

(IA No. 26698/2023 – EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT)

Date : 02-05-2023

This matter was called on for hearing today.

CORAM : HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE AJAY RASTOGI
HON’BLE MS. JUSTICE BELA M. TRIVEDI

For Petitioner(s) Mr. Anjan Datta, Adv.
Mr. Tapodip Gupta, Adv.
Mr. Pawan Kumar, Adv.
Ms. Garima G. Mukherjee, Adv.
Mr. R. Mondal, Adv.
Mr. Digant Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Rahul Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Kajal Kumari, Adv.
Mr. Parshuram Paswan, Adv.
Mr. Pranaya Kumar Mohapatra, AOR

For Respondent(s) Ms. Anju Thomas, Adv.
Mr. Shreyas Awasthi, Adv.
Mr. Devvrat Singh, Adv.
Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR
SLP (Crl) No. 2776/2023 1/3

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following

ORDER

The petitioner before this Court is seeking post-arrest bail, which was declined by the High Court by an order dated 19.09.2022.

Four persons were implicated in FIR No. 225/2021 registered on 23.12.2021 under Sections 21(c) and 29 of NDPS Act, including the petitioner.

After investigation, the chargesheet was filed on 31.05.2022 and it is informed that the charges are framed on 11.08.2022. It is also brought to our notice that there are 11 prosecution witnesses in the calender of witnesses and the trial is a complete non-starter as on date and the petitioner is in custody since 29.12.2021 and there are no other criminal antecedents on record.

After having heard learned counsel for the parties and taking into consideration the material on record and the period of incarceration of the petitioner and the fact that there are no other criminal antecedents on record and the trial may take own time, without expressing any opinion on merits/demerits of the case, the petitioner has made out a case of post-arrest bail.

Ordered accordingly.

The petitioner shall be produced before the trial court within a period of three days and be released on
bail on such terms and conditions to the satisfaction of the trial court.

In view of above, the Special Leave Petition is disposed of. Pending interlocutory application(s), if any, is/are disposed of.

(JAYANT KUMAR ARORA)

(VIRENDER SINGH)

ASTT. REGISTRAR-cum-PS

BRANCH OFFICER