NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has refused bail to a woman in a case under the anti-drug law, saying that a “clean and tidy track record” would not absolve her from being in possession of 600gm of methamphetamine and there is a “greater presumption” against a highly educated person in such cases.
Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that a “commercial quantity” of the drug was recovered from the woman-petitioner and the material on record disclosed that she is part of a network that deals in supply/sale of narcotics.
The court also noted that the petitioner’s disclosure statement resulted in the arrest of two Nigerian accused persons who were found living illegally in India on fake passports and possessing narcotics.
“An uneducated person may claim no knowledge of the substance found in his or her possession and may raise a defence of the substance being planted on them, but being a highly educated person, there is greater presumption that carrying large quantities of narcotics is a crime and that it would entail consequences which could irrevocable,” the judge said.
The petitioner was arrested in February 2018 after police received a secret tip that she would be travelling to Mumbai by train from Hazrat Nizamuddin Station, carrying illegal contraband in her baggage. Seeking bail, the petitioner contended that as she was searched by the police in a toilet inside the train and her bag was not there with her, the possibility of the bag being tampered with could not be ruled out. It was further said that the petitioner was an educated woman with no criminal record.