MALIK HAQ NAWAZ, J.---By filing this petition, the petitioners/accused sought post arrest bail in case FIR No,13/15 registered at Police Station ANF Gilgit on 28.8.2015 under section 9(c) and 14/15 of Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997.
2. The petitioners/accused applied for post arrest bail before the learned Special Judge, CNSA Hunza-Nagar, whereby their post arrest bail petition was dismissed by the learned Special Judge.
3. Details of the occurrence have been narrated in detail by the learned Special Judge in Para 2 of the judgment dated 7.11.2015, therefore, these are not being reproduced and the gist of the allegation contained in FIR No, 13/15 are that on 28.8.2015 at about 0900 hours a spy information was conveyed to ASI Muhammad Sharif that the petitioner/accused Shakeel Ahmad Nagri will sent a huge quantity of heroin to China and on receipt of this information, the ANF staff became extra vigilant and it was about 1200 hours, when the petitioner/accused along with one Aamir came at ANF Counter. Both the petitioners/ accused were carrying four cartons in their hands, while Aamir was carrying only one carton and on opening of these 6 cartons screens 150 grams of heroin was found skillfully/deceitfully concealed in each carton and total 8100 grams heroin was recovered.
The petitioners were arrested and recovered substance was taken into possession in presence of marginal witnesses and some samples from each screen were separated for chemical expert opinion and accordingly FIR No, 13/15 was lodged under the relevant provisions of CNSA-1997.
4. The main thrust of arguments of the learned counsel for the petitioners/accused are that petitioner No, 1 is student of Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad and petitioner No, 2 is carrying the business of a carrier and it is the only source of their livelihood. The learned counsel further submitted that the petitioners/accused have been trapped because of their innocence and have been deceived by some miscreants. As per learned counsel to burden the petitioners/accused with the criminal liability, conscious possession of the contraband must be proved on the part of prosecution, which is lacking in the instant case and the case of the petitioners, is one of the further inquiry.
5. On the other hand Mr. Manzoor Hussain, learned Special Prosecutor for ANF vehemently opposed the petition and submitted at bar that there is prompt FIR, which carries the details of the occurrence and 3600 grams of heroin has, been recovered from each of the petitioner/accused, hence they are not entitled for concession of bail.
6. We have heard the learned counsel for both the parties at length, .Perused the record and the material collected during investigation. There are many salient features of this very case, which put us on guard to look at the material with an extra care and cautions. As per prosecution story same car screen LCDs purchased from Peshawar were exported to China, which were returned back from there being defective and again when they were being exported when heroin was detected by ANF, which was concealed secretly in car screen LCDs, which appears to have a pre-planned and well designed attempt to smuggle the contraband.
7. Section 51, CNSA-1997 is carried out, it creates a bar to grant bail to the petitioner/accused charged under this Special law and it could be safely said that in the cases falling under CNSA- 1997, refusal of bail is rule and grant is only an exception and for availing exception accused/petitioner has to make out his case. In CNSA-1997 severe punishments are provided but at the same time prosecution has two fold responsibilities, firstly it is to establish that the contraband narcotics recovered was in conscious possession of accused and secondly to establish that a particular quantity has been recovered from a particular accused, and in absence of such evidence, it would be difficult for the Court to draw an inference against the accused, but in the case in hand, there is no apparent defect which should be resolved in favour of petitioners/accused.
8. The Courts of the Country are extending concession of bail to the accused, where participation/implication of the accused is doubtful or debatable. Control of Narcotics Substance Act is a special law, which has been enacted to curb the drug traffickers and severe punishments have been provided to create deterrence for likeminded people.
9. From the tentative assessm ent of the material produced by the prosecution before us, we find that the learned counsel for the petitioners/accused failed to make out a case for exercise of our discretion in their favour. The result of above discussion is that the petition in hand is dismissed being meritless. File.