Observing that it was the prosecution’s fault and there was no illegality committed by the magistrate in passing the bail order, a special NDPS court recently refused to cancel the bail granted to comedienne Bharti Singh and her husband, Harsh Limbachiya, almost three years after they were released from jail in a drugs case. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had moved the special NDPS court in 2020, seeking cancellation as a magistrate’s court granted them the relief after neither the NCB nor the public prosecutor representing the investigating agency appeared before the court to make submissions on the bail pleas.
The special NDPS court pointed out that when the matter was posted a day after the bail plea was filed in the magistrate’s court, the NCB neither filed reply on bail applications nor filed any application for adjournment, seeking time to file reply. “The investigating officer and special public prosecutor failed to appear before the court. Therefore, it is fault of prosecution,” said the court. It added, “There are no allegations of committal of breach of conditions of bail order granted by… magistrate. Therefore, there are absolutely no grounds made out for cancellation of bail to the respondents… The application is devoid of merits and is liable to be rejected.”
In November 2020, the NCB allegedly recovered 86.5 grams of marijuana from Bharti and Harsh’s home and office and they were taken into custody. In October 2022, the NCB submitted chargesheet in which it cited statement of accused-turned-approver Sowmiyanarayanan, a musician.