The offense, under section 27A of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), which carries a penalty of 10 to 20 years in prison, was introduced as a separate offense in 1989 shortly after the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988.. India ratified the UN convention that “recognizes that illicit trafficking is an international criminal activity, the suppression of which requires urgent attention and the highest priority.”
“The Objects and Reasons Statement of the 1989 Amendment to the 1985 NDPS Act mentions that India faces a problem of illicit drugs in transit,” Judge Sarang Kotwal said in an important finding on the scope of section 27A of the NDPS Act. , while granting bail on Wednesday to actress Rhea Chakraborty, who was the girlfriend of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. “The spill of said traffic was causing problems of abuse and addiction. Therefore, the need was felt to amend the Law to strengthen it even more.”
There were already prohibitive provisions against drug trafficking in the NDPS Act at that time under section 8, which says that no person should produce, possess, sell, buy (or do a number of things, including transportation and storage) any NDPS except medical or scientific purposes.
“(He wanted) to attack the basic cause of illicit drug trafficking,” the judge said. The financing of a pharmaceutical company and its maintenance and thus the term “financing” in the section had to be interpreted as something beyond the mere buying and selling of drugs. “Prohibitive section 8 already existed … Therefore, a separate section 27A was introduced to verify these activities, which were the root cause of illicit trafficking,” he said, adding that, therefore, “financing was specifically mentioned. “and” protection “. . The “financing” in the section denotes “financial support that directly or indirectly is the cause of the existence of said illicit traffic,” the judge said. “It refers to activities that involve illegal trade or business.”
“The accusations against Rhea Chakraborty of spending money acquiring drugs for Sushant Singh Rajput will not, therefore, mean that she has financed the illicit trafficking,” said the HC.
On the other key term, “harbor,” the HC argued that “it means that there has to be another offender who has committed the crime.” “The person who is accused of harboring the main offender should have provided him with shelter, food” and the requirement is that the shelter “should have done so to avoid the apprehension (arrest) of the main offender”. But in NCB v. Rhea, the HC noted, “there was no criminal or FIR case pending against Sushant Singh Rajput.”
Meanwhile, Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant, who got bail together with Rhea, were released from Taloja, Navi Mumbai, on Thursday.
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