Nupur Satija, a woman from Gurugram who was arrested in the Mumbai drug bust case by the NCB has been granted bail by the NDPS special court calling the search conducted in her room and the alleged seizure of MDMA tablets illegal and that she was entitled to relief.
Special judge V V Patil said, "In the present case, the search was undertaken by a female panch who is not an empowered officer to effect the search and, therefore, there is a breach of Section 42 of NDPS Act. Present accused is entitled to grant of bail on that ground."
Earlier, Ayaz Khan, who is Nupur Satija’s advocate had submitted a report to the special court that stated, it is not in a panch's power to conduct search and recover contraband. It can be only done by officers empowered by the NDPS Act pointing out to a notification from 1985 that says only officers of and above the rank of inspector in the NCB are empowered to exercise powers and perform duties specified in Section 42.
The court further said, "Admittedly, personal search of accused as well as search of room of accused was (under)taken by (a) female panch witness. Admittedly, there was no lady officer present and no panchanama was carried out by person authorised for that purpose."
The NCB had submitted that they had found drugs wrapped in sanitary napkins. However, the court said that there was no specific evidence on record to show that the accused had any connection in the conspiracy.
Nupur Satija along with Delhi residents Gomit Chopra, Ishmeet Singh Chadha, Shreyas Nair were granted bail on October 30.
