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Granting bail to four “organizers” of the alleged “rave party” on the Cordelia cruise liner, a special NDPS court held that the company was merely in-charge of live entertainment shows, did not regulate entry on the cruise, and had no control over passengers.
The court observed that prima facie allegations of conspiracy under Section 29 and financing illicit drug traffic and harbouring offenders under section 27A of NDPS Act was not made out, noting that no one from the Cordelia team or its sponsors were arrested in the case.
Pursuant to a tripartite agreement, Waterways Leisure Tourism Pvt. Ltd. (Cordelia) has issued passes for the cruise and payments received by Book My Show, the accused contended. But NCB claimed that by virtue of being organisers, they had played the pivotal role in commission of the offence as small and intermediate quantities of contraband was recovered, following the raid.
They were arrested after the cruise returned on October 5 and booked under sections 25 (Allowing premises, etc., to be used for commission of an offence), 27A (financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders), 28 and 29 (abetment and conspiracy) of the NDPS Act.
“….it can be gathered that applicant’s company was only involved in conducting live entertainment shows and live music shows on the Cruise and did not have authority to either regulate entry on board or assign the rooms. It can be gathered that they had no control over the Cruise and the passengers therein. Therefore, applicant cannot be directly said to be connected with the co-accused or with the recovery made at the instance of the co-accused.”
“It is pertinent to note that no one from Cordelia team and sponsors were made accused in the case. Thus, the case of the prosecution cannot be accepted that there was conspiracy in between the applicant and co-accused for commission of offence pertaining to Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Hence Sec. 29 under NDPS Act is not applicable.”
Special Judge VV Patil granted bail to directors – Gopal Jee Anand and Sameer Sehgal- and employees Bhaskar Arora and Manav Singhal of Delhi-based company Caneplus Trading Pvt Ltd operating under the brand name Namas’cray.
Passengers Warned Against Consumption of Contraband
The court noted that documents revealed that the company in its promotions vide Instagram Post, Facebook Post, Facebook Event Page – its “Crayark Bible’ and the ‘Book My Shows’ on its Ticket Page – had clearly warned every passenger from abstaining to bring any drugs or illegal substance.
The accused through advocate Sajal Yadav argued that they had exercised all due diligence to prevent commission of an offence in view of their Zero Tolerance Policy for ‘Consuming & Distributing drugs/substances.’ Therefore, they cannot be connected with the alleged drugs recovered at the instance of co-accused.
SPP alleged that applicant, being the organizer of the event must have knowledge about the event i.e. Rave Party which was organized on the Cruise. Therefore, culpable mental state of applicant is clearly established.
Section 27A of NDPS Act not Applicable
The court held that prima facie there is no evidence on record that the company was in any way dealing in illicit drug trafficking or harbouring offenders.
“So far as allegations regarding Sec.27-A of NDPS Act are concerned, prosecution has not placed on record any evidence showing that applicant or his company was in any way dealing in financing illicit trafficking and harbouring offenders. There is no evidence regarding harbouring as discussed by Hon’ble High Court in above authority. There is also no any evidence regarding financing illicit traffic as alleged by the respondent.”
Since sections 27A and 29 are not prima facie attracted, fetters of section 37 would not apply, the court said.
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