This petition for post-arrest bail arose from a case registered under Section 9(c) of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997, following the alleged recovery of 1014 grams of heroin from the petitioner. The core legal question was whether the weight of the recovered substance, which marginally exceeded the threshold for Section 9(c), justified the denial of bail when the weight included the packaging material. The Supreme Court observed that the prosecution could not clarify whether the heroin was weighed with or without the polythene bag. The Court held that if the weight of the packaging were excluded, the quantity might fall below 1000 grams, potentially bringing the offense under Section 9(b) rather than 9(c). Consequently, the Court determined that the case required further inquiry under Section 497(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The petition was converted into an appeal and allowed, granting bail to the petitioner subject to a surety bond, establishing that marginal weight discrepancies involving packaging can create a basis for further inquiry in narcotics cases.
' MANZOOR AHMAD MALIK, J.---The petitioner seeks bail in case FIR No, 391 of 2015 dated 02.11.2015, offence under sections 9(c), of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997, registered at P.S. Jalalpur Jattan, District Gujrat.
2. Precise allegation against the petitioner, as contained in the FIR, is that on 02.11.2015, on a spy information, petitioner was apprehended by the raiding party and on his search, from a shopper which he was holding in his right hand, heroin along with some money were recovered; that on weighing the heroin, it was, found 1014 grams.
3. After hearing the learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Additional Prosecutor General Punjab and perusing the material available on record, we have noticed that when the petitioner was apprehended, 1014 grams of heroin was allegedly recovered from a shopper bag which he was carrying in his right hand. On Court query, the learned Additional Prosecutor General, after going through the recovery memo available on the file of police record, could not show that the recovered heroin was weighed along with the polythene bag or otherwise. If the recovered heroin was weighed along with the polythene bag, prima facie, A the weight of the heroin without the polythene bag, if weighed, might have come to 1000 grams or less than that and in that eventuality, the case of the present petitioner would have fallen within the ambit of section 9(b) of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. In this backdrop, the case of the petitioner becomes one of further enquiry falling within the purview of section 497(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
4. For what has been discussed above, this petition is converted into appeal and the same is allowed. Consequently, petitioner Atteb-urRehman @ Atti Mochi is allowed bail in the instant FIR, subject to furnishing his bail bond in the sum of RS. 1,00,000/- (rupees one lac only), with one surety, in the like amount to the satisfaction of learned trial Court.