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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court has recently granted bail to Kyle Cummings, a 23-year-old Pune wrestler in an NDPS case for allegedly ordering 281 grams of methamphetamine, MDMA tablets and powder from Belgium.

 A single-judge bench of the high court comprising Justice Manish Pitale was hearing Cummings's petition who was arrested in May 2024 along with two other people.

Earlier, the Sessions Court had rejected Kyle’s bail application noting that there was sufficient involvement in the crime.

The Special Investigation and Intelligence Branch intercepted a parcel at a foreign post. Later the officials found that the package contained MDMA. The officials then forwarded the parcel to Pune and set a trap.

A consignee named Shrawan Joshi collected the parcel and came to be arrested. Later, Cummings and Aryan Haldankar also came to be arrested.

Cummings relied on the order of the division bench of the high court granting bail to Shrawan Joshi and sought parity.

He argued that the division bench in the said order, while granting relief to the co accused-Shrawan Joshi found that how the co-accused was arrested and the contents of the arrest memo, clearly demonstrated that the requirements of law were violated and that principles laid down by the Supreme Court in the cases referred to in the said order, were violated in the present case.

The prosecutor contended that the case concerned the commercial quantity of contraband and the modus operandi adopted by the applicant, was that he used to call for contraband and substances in the name and address of the co accused-Shrawan Joshi.

The bench accepted the contentions of Cummings and proceeded to grant bail. "Since the applicant herein was arrested and the arrest memo in the present case is almost identical to that executed in the context of co-accused-Shrawan Joshi, this Court is inclined to allow the application," the order reads.

Case title:  Kyle Cummings vs UOI