Bombay High Court: Bombay HC grants bail to businessman in controversial drug bust case |

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday ordered the bail of an accused arrested in Pune under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in a case involving less than a commercial quantity of the drug.
The court held that the lack of procedure and failure to inform the accused of the grounds for his arrest cannot be sustained and make the arrest illegal.
Ravet police station was arrested in March this year Hanuman Choudharya 29-year-old businessman, after allegedly finding 30 grams of mephedrone (MD) — a synthetic drug — in his pocket during a personal search.
A division bench comprising Justices Nitin Sambre and Manjusha Deshpande, after hearing Choudhary’s lawyer Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh and public prosecutor MM Deshmukh, observed that legal safeguards and search provisions of the NDPS Act were ignored, holding the arrest unconstitutional .
Choudhary’s bail plea was based on the violation of his constitutional and procedural rights.
The Ravet police filed a case against Rohit Singh, the first accused, who – while in custody – led the police to Choudhary’s shop. There, 30 grams of MD were found in petitioner’s pocket following a personal search.
Section 50 of the CrPC requires that arrested persons be informed of the reasons for their arrest, while Section 52(1) of the NDPS Act provides for the procedure to be followed when a person is arrested. Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India provides that no person shall be arrested and detained without being informed of the reasons for the arrest.
The prosecutor stated that no procedure was violated and that the reasons for the arrest were disclosed in the request for preventive arrest. However, on reviewing the explanation, the HC noted the lack of grounds for arrest in the affidavit, which bore the signature of the accused.
The court said that a drug search under the memorandum “cannot in any way be called a communication of reasons for arrest as provided by law” and granted bail to Choudhary, finding the arrest to violate the constitutional mandate and Article 50 from CrPC.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday ordered the bail of an accused arrested in Pune under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in a case involving less than a commercial quantity of the drug.
The court held that the lack of procedure and failure to inform the accused of the grounds for his arrest cannot be sustained and make the arrest illegal.
In March this year, Ravet police station arrested Hanuman Choudhary, a 29-year-old businessman, after allegedly finding 30 grams of mephedrone (MD) – a synthetic drug – in his pocket during a personal search.
A division bench comprising Justices Nitin Sambre and Manjusha Deshpande, after hearing Choudhary’s lawyer Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh and public prosecutor MM Deshmukh, observed that legal safeguards and search provisions of the NDPS Act were ignored, holding the arrest unconstitutional .
Choudhary’s bail plea was based on the violation of his constitutional and procedural rights.
The Ravet police filed a case against Rohit Singh, the first accused, who – while in custody – led the police to Choudhary’s shop. There, 30 grams of MD were found in petitioner’s pocket following a personal search.
Section 50 of the CrPC requires that arrested persons be informed of the reasons for their arrest, while Section 52(1) of the NDPS Act provides for the procedure to be followed when a person is arrested. Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India states that no person shall be arrested and detained without being informed of the reasons for the arrest.
The prosecutor stated that no procedure was violated and that the reasons for the arrest were disclosed in the request for preventive arrest. However, on reviewing the explanation, the HC noted the lack of grounds for arrest in the affidavit, which bore the signature of the accused.
The court said that a drug search under the memorandum “cannot in any way be called a communication of reasons for arrest as provided by law” and granted bail to Choudhary, finding the arrest to violate the constitutional mandate and Article 50 from CrPC.