Constable Shown at Two Raids at Once: Rajasthan High Court Suspends NDPS Sentence, Orders DGP Inquiry

The applicant was convicted under Section 8/22 of the NDPS Act by the Special Judge, NDPS Cases, Jaipur Metro-I on 25.06.2025 and sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1,00,000 (para 1). On information from Constable Girdhari Lal, his medical store was searched on 31.01.2022, where 3000 tablets of B-Rest 0.5 and 450 tablets of Rlam 0.5 were said to have been found without purchase bills (paras 2, 7). He pointed out that the same constable gave information in another case registered that day, in which he was acquitted on 24.06.2025, and that he had been in custody for over four years and five months (paras 5-6). The State opposed suspension (para 7).

The Court noted that the contraband was seized on 31.01.2022 and samples were sent to the FSL on 01.02.2022, but the Section 52A inventory was prepared before the Magistrate only on 10.03.2022; prima facie, the tested samples were not drawn in the Magistrate's presence or under his supervision (para 9). Although the two seizures were made within a narrow time span, the constable was shown present at both; this overlap, with the acquittal in the connected case, could not be ignored, and the trial judge who decided both cases a day apart had not noticed it (para 10). The Drug Controller Officer (PW-4) admitted that the drugs had already been recovered by the constable (PW-6), indicating that no competent officer made the recovery (para 11). With the alleged lapses under Sections 42 and 50, the absence of independent witnesses and the pendency of appeals, the applicant had strong arguable grounds (para 11). Being at two places at once was "humanly impossible", and NDPS investigations must be fair and generate complete trust (paras 15-16).