The Supreme Court recently held that a drug trafficker who served a sentence in the US could be arrested for the same case in India.
The Supreme Court recently held that a drug trafficker who served a sentence in the US could be arrested for the same case in India, and not claim immunity on ground of ‘double jeopardy’.
The court laid emphasis on the fact that as per sections 3 and 4 of the Indian Penal Code, any Indian who committed an offence in any place was liable to be tried in India.
The case dates back to 2003, when in a joint operation by the US Drug Enforcement Agency and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), a drug cartel, involving accused Jitendra Panchal, Niranjan Shah and two others, was busted.
Panchal was arrested by the US agency in Vienna in 2002, the others were held by the NCB in Mumbai in 2003. Panchal pleaded guilty on charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances before a district court in Michigan and was sentenced to imprisonment for 54 months in 2006.
In March 2007, on his deportation, Panchal was arrested by the NCB officials in Mumbai. He filed an application arguing that the proceedings would amount to ‘double jeopardy’. It was was dismissed by the trial court and Bombay High Court (HC).
The HC said that the ingredients of the offences Panchal had been charged with in India were different.
However, Panchal’s counsel, KTS Tulsi argued that the US authorities had chosen not to prosecute him under other charges.
The division bench of justices Altmas Kabir and Markandey Katju on February 2 held that Panchal was convicted for an offence “distinct and separate” from the offence he was being tried under in India.
The bench agreed with the NCB counsel, Shekhar Naphade, who said that in the US, Panchal was tried for distribution of drugs, whereas in India he was being tried for importing the same from Nepal to India.
“This judgment would affect people who are caught in a continuing conspiracy from abroad,” said his lawyer Taraq Sayed.
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