Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court has granted regular bail to a juvenile delinquent in a drug trafficking case registered in Surat, on an undertaking by his father to supervise the child, ensure attendance in education, cooperate with probation supervision, avoid witness influence, and restrict travel without court permission.
His use as an alleged peddler surfaced when two persons were caught by the police in Feb with 268.6g of MD valued at Rs 26.9 lakh. The court held that bail under Section 12 of the Juvenile Justice Act must be denied only if release is likely to associate the child with known criminals, expose him to danger, or defeat justice, and found no specific material satisfying these exceptions. The child from north Gujarat was arrested by the detection of crime branch, Surat in April in connection with peddling mephedrone. After a Surat court denied him bail, he approached the HC through senior advocates Asim Pandya and Jaimin Mehta. Granting bail, Justice S V Pinto noted that neither was contraband recovered from the juvenile, nor was any independent documentary or electronic material, such as financial transactions, establishing a direct nexus with the seized drugs found on his person or premises.