SC denies bail in MDMA case, says drug peddlers must face firm action

The Supreme Court rejected the bail plea of an accused in an MDMA-ecstasy tablets case, stressing that drug traffickers are destroying generations of youth. The court upheld the Madras High Court's order, citing the seriousness of offences under the NDPS Act

New Delhi: People dealing with drugs will have to be dealt with a very firm hand as they are destroying the lives of youths of this country generation after generation, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sheel Nagu and V Mohana dismissed the bail plea of an accused who was arrested in June 2022 in a case registered under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

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“People dealing with drugs will have to be dealt with a very firm hand. They are destroying the lives of youths of this country generation after generation,” Justice Nath observed while dismissing the plea.

The accused had moved the apex court challenging a February this year order of the Madras High Court. The high court, which had refused to grant him bail in the case, had noted that it was his sixth successive bail application.

According to the prosecution, on June 11, 2022, the petitioner and two others were standing with a bag and on seeing the police, they tried to escape from the spot.

It was alleged that 21 MDMA-ecstasy tablets weighing around 10.15 grams were found in the bag. The prosecution said that based on the confession of the petitioner and another accused, the third accused who ran away from the spot was also arrested.

Before the high court, the petitioner’s counsel had contended that the alleged contraband seized from him on June 11, 2022 was produced before the special court at Chennai only on July 5, 2022 and till then, the police had kept the same in their custody without any approval from the trial court concerned.

His counsel had argued that though the high court in November 2024 had directed the trial court to complete the trial within six months, the trial was not yet concluded and the co-accused were already granted bail.

The counsel representing the state had argued before the high court that three accused were involved in the case and 10.15 grams of MDMA-ecstasy tablets allegedly seized from the petitioner falls under commercial quantity. The high court had dismissed the bail plea.