204 kg Ganja: Supreme Court Suspends Truck Driver's 12-Year NDPS Sentence After Over Four Years in Custody

An NCB team intercepted a truck driven by the petitioner, then 28, with a co-accused helper, and recovered 204 kg of ganja (para 2). The trial court convicted him under Sections 20(b)(ii)(c), 25 and 29 of the NDPS Act and sentenced him to 12 years' rigorous imprisonment and a ₹1 lakh fine; his appeal, citing irregularities in sampling and the absence of independent witnesses, is pending before the High Court (para 1). He has been in custody since 19.05.2022 (para 2). He submitted that he was only the driver with no conscious possession, that the helper's sentence had already been suspended, and that the alleged transporter was on bail (para 3).

The order gives no reasons beyond a prima facie view. On a prima facie consideration, the Court suspended the petitioner's sentence (para 4) and directed that he be released on bail on conditions fixed by the trial court until the High Court decides his appeal (para 5). It recorded, without further comment, that he had been in judicial custody for over four years and four months, and the submissions that the co-accused helper's sentence had earlier been suspended by the Supreme Court and that the person identified as responsible for transporting the ganja had been granted bail (paras 2-3).