IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATI V’' >5^ ■>: -ii. FRIDAY, THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF FEBRUARY TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY SIX :PRESENT: THE HONOURABLE DR JUSTICE VENKATA JYOTHIRMAI PRATAPA CRIMINAL PETITION NO: 1290 OF 2026 ’lx? Between: Bhubaneshwar Pani, S/o. Ayub PanI, aged about 42 years, Wo. Gumma Village, Serango Tehsil, Gajapathi District, Odisha State. ^ ...Petitioner/Accused No.3 AND The State of Andhra Pradesh, Rep by Its Public Prosecutor, High Court of Andhra Pradesh ...Respondent Petition under Sections 437 & 439 of Cr.P.C/ Under Sections 480 & 483 of BNSS, praying that in the circumstances stated in the memorandum of grounds filed in support of the Criminal Petition, the High Court may b4 pleased to enlarge the Petitioner/Accused No.3 on bail pending disposal of Crime No.02/2024 of Harbour P.S.. Visakhapatnam District. The Petition coming on for hearing, upon perusing the Petition and the memorandum of grounds filed in support thereof and upon hearing the arguments of SRI DASARI RAMAKOTESWAR RAO Advocate for the Petitioner, and of PUBLIC PROSECUTOR, for the Respondent, the Court made the following 2 THE HONOURABLE DR JUSTICE VENKATA JYOTHIRMAI PRATAPA CRIMINAL PETITION NO: 1290/2026 ORDER: This Criminal Petition, under Sections 480 and 483 of the BNSS, has been filed by the Petitioner herein/Accused No.3, seeking regular bail, in Crime No.02/2024 of Harbour P.S., Visakhapatnam District, registered for the offences punishable under Section 20(b)(ii)(B) r/w 8 (c) of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (for short “NDPS Act”). The case of the prosecution in brief, is that, on 12.01.2024, at about 4.00 PM, 40 Kgs of Ganja was seized from the possession of A-1 and A-2, who confessed that the present petitioner supplied 40 Kgs of Ganja to them. Subsequently, the police obtained PT Warrant against the petitioner and he was remanded to the judicial custody in connection with the case registered by Badarpur Police Station, South East, Delhi. As such the petitioner produced through Video call and he was remanded to judicial custody. 2. was 3. Heard Sri Dasari Ramakoteswar Rao, learned counsel for the petitioner/accused No.3 and Mrs.K.Priyanka Lakshmi, learned Assistant Public Prosecutor on behalf of the State. 4. Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in this crime and that he is in no way connected with the commission of the offence, it is further submitted that the petitioner is the sole earning member of the family and, therefore, his continued incarceration r— 3 would cause undue hardship to his dependents. The judicial custody since 19.08.2025 confession statement, there is petitioner has been in on execution of PT Warrant. Except the no material connecting the petitioner to the alleged crime. The contraband involved in the present crime is 40 Kgs of Ganja, which is a commercial quantity. It is further submitted that no contraband is seized from the possession of the petitioner. It is further submitted that the statutory period is over and no report has been filed before the Trial Court till date. Learned counsel further undertakes to strictly adhere to submits that the petitioner any conditions that may be imposed by this Hon’ble Court. 5. Learned Assistant Public Prosecutor on behalf of the State vehemently opposed the petition and contended that the investigation is still pending and the contraband involved in the present case is 40 Kgs of Ganja. petitioner herein is the seller. She would further submit that The no report was filed before the learned Court below by the learned Public Prosecutor concerned seeking for extension period of judicial custody of the petitioner upto by indicating the progress of investigation and the one year specific reasons for the detention of the accused beyond the initial period 6. Considering the submissions and placed on record and in the light of the facts and upon keen perusal of the material circumstances of the case, that the petitioner is in judicial custody since 19.08.2025, the fact that the contraband involved in the present crime is only 40 Kgs of Ganja, that the 4 / statutory period is over and no report has been filed before the Court, this Court is inclined to enlarge the petitioner on bail with the following conditions; The petitioner/accused No.3 shall execute a personal bond for a sum I. of Rs. 20,000/- (Rupees Twenty Thousand only) each with two sureties for a like sum each, to the satisfaction of the learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, at Visakhapatnam. The petitioner/accused No.3 shall appear before the Investigating II. Officer as and when required and shall cooperate with further investigation, if any. The petitioner/accused No.3 shall not directly or indirectly tamper with III. evidence nor influence, intimidate, or induce any prosecution witness. The petitioner/accused No.3 shall appear before the Station House IV. Officer, concerned, once in a week i.e., on every Saturday between 10.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m. till filing of charge sheet. The petitioner/accused No.3 shall not commit or indulge in commission V. of any offence in future. The petitioner/accused No.3 shall surrender his passport, if any, to the VI. concerned Court. If he claims that he does not have a passport, he shall submit an affidavit to that effect to the concerned Court. 7. In the event of violation of any of the above conditions, the prosecution shall be at liberty to seek cancellation of bail. r \ 5 It is also made clear that the observations made in this order are only for the purpose of deciding the bail applications and they shall not be construed as opinion on the merits of the Crime. 8. 9. Accordingly, this Criminal Petition is allowed. As a sequel thereto, the miscellaneous applications, if any, pending in lON this Criminal Petition shall stand closed. assistant //TRUE COPY/ SE' To, 1. The I Additional District & Sessions Judge-Special Judge for Trial of Offences under NDPS Act, Visakhapatnam, Visakhapatnam District 2. The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Visakhapatnam 3. The Superintendent, Central Jail, Visakhapatnam, Visakhapatnam District / 4. The Station House Officer, Harbour Police Station, Visakhapatnam District ^ 5. One CC to SRI. DASARI RAMAKOTESWAR RAO Advocate [OPUC] 6. Two CCs to PUBLIC PROSECUTOR, High Court of Andhra Pradesh ^ [OUT] 7. One spare copy I PSR HIGH COURT DR.VJP,J DATED:27/02/2026 BAIL ORDER CRLP.No.1290 of 2026 ALLOWED i