Telangana high court rejects bail plea of man convicted in alprazolam bust
Hyderabad: Rejecting the bail plea of a man sentenced to 10 years for assisting in illegal manufacturing of alprazolam, the Telangana high court said the court must be first reasonably satisfied on a prima facie basis of innocence and merely serving two years of term could not be a ground for bail in a major narcotics bust.
Justice K Lakshman gave the order in the bail petition filed by Vasamsetti Naresh. The judgment follows an earlier Supreme Court directive in Sept 2024 setting aside a previous HC bail order and remanding the matter for fresh consideration to HC.
The case dates back to 2016 when prime accused Bandaru Hanumanth Reddy was caught red-handed by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) with 132 kg of alprazolam. Reddy had manufactured it illegally at the premises of Venkata Raghava Labs (VRL) in Jinnaram mandal of Medak district by leasing their equipment.
He had hired Naresh, who had prior experience at Manaswini Pharma in Hindupur Thumkunta Industrial area, and another person.
All three were sentenced to 10 years by a Sangareddy court in 2022.
Naresh had later moved a bail plea stating that he merely assisted the accused in making the substance in a lab without realising the criminal intent
The judge, in his order, said that 132 kg of alprazolam seized in the crime far exceeded the commercial quantity limit under the NDPS Act i.e.,
100 grams.
"Courts are generally reluctant to grant bail in cases involving such large quantities due to severity of the offence. Section 37 of NDPS Act requires the court to be satisfied there are reasonable grounds for believing the accused is not guilty and is not likely to commit any offence while on bail. The petitioner has been in jail for 23 months. It is not a ground to grant bail. The petitioner failed to provide any ground to grant bail.
Therefore, this court is not inclined to grant bail," the HC said while dismissing the bail application.
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