Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
Section 439 (Sec. 483 of the BNSS, 2023)—Regular bail—Recovery of 5 grams of heroin and 26.26 grams of another intoxicating substance—FIR registered under Secs. 21 and 22 the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act—Petitioner is behind the bars from the last seven months and six days—Investigation is complete—Final report under Sec. 173 of CrPC (Sec. 193 of the BNSS, 2023) was presented before the concerned Court—Charges were framed and trial of the case has not made much progress—Out of 14 prosecution witnesses, no PW has been examined so far—Further the culpability, if any, would be determined at the time of trial and as such, no useful purpose will be served by further detention of the petitioner—Keeping the petitioner in further detention without the prospect of the trial being concluded in the near future, would be violative of his rights under Article 21 of the Constitution—Even the involvement of petitioner in other cases would not be a ground to refuse grant of concession of regular bail—Petitioner ordered to be released on regular bail—Petition allowed.
[Paras 6, 8, 9 & 10]