Open Access Research Article

APP-BASED DRUG TRAFFICKING IN INDIA: PLATFORM LIABILITY AND THE INDIVIDUAL CULPABILITY OF THE ACCUSED UNDER THE NDPS ACT. BY – SUMIT GURJAR, VEDANT THAKUR & SAMRIDDH SHARMA

Author(s):
SUMIT GURJAR VEDANT THAKUR SAMRIDDH SHARMA
Journal IJLRA
ISSN 2582-6433
Access Open Access
Volume 3
Issue 7
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Abstract

The rapid digitization of the Indian economy has facilitated a fundamental shift in the architecture of organized crime, particularly within the illicit narcotics trade. The emergence of hyper local delivery services and gig-economy platforms has inadvertently supplied drug trafficking syndicates with a sophisticated, low-risk infrastructure for the domestic transportation of contraband, including high-potency synthetic substances such as methamphetamine, mephedrone, and LSD, alongside hydroponic cannabis. This transition from localized, physical hand-to-hand transactions to an app-mediated ‘Drugs-as-a-Service’ (DaaS) model, increasingly structured on a decentralized drop-shipping framework, presents profound challenges to the existing legal architecture. At the heart of this crisis sits a double friction: first, between the conditional immunity granted to digital intermediaries under the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, and the stringent, zero-tolerance mandates of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985; and second, within the NDPS framework itself, between the reverse-burden presumptions that make prosecution comparatively easy and the constitutional guarantee that no person may be punished without a fair opportunity to rebut the case against them. This paper examines both halves of that friction. It begins with the platform-level question of intermediary liability that occupied the original literature on this subject, and then turns as its central concern to the liability of the individual drug accused within the app-based ecosystem: the kingpin who designs the operation, the financier who bankrolls it, the peddler who books the delivery, the gig-economy rider who unknowingly carries the parcel, and the end-consumer who receives it. Each of these actors occupies a different position on the NDPS Act’s spectrum of culpability, and the reverse-burden presumptions of Sections 35 and 54, the bail bar under Section 37, and the confession jurisprudence following Tofan Singh v State of Tamil Nadu operate very differently depending on where an accused sits in that chain. Understanding this differentiated liability is essential to any coherent policy response to app-based trafficking, because a framework that treats the unwitting delivery rider and the syndicate financier identically is neither doctrinally sound nor likely to survive appellate scrutiny.

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Authors: SUMIT GURJAR, VEDANT THAKUR & SAMRIDDH SHARMARegistration ID: 1013347 | Published Paper ID: IJLRA13347, IJLRA13348 & IJLRA13349Year: Oct-2026 | Volume: 3 | Issue: 7Approved ISSN: 2582-6433 | Country: Delhi, IndiaPage No.: 984- 1004

Article Information

APP-BASED DRUG TRAFFICKING IN INDIA: PLATFORM LIABILITY AND THE INDIVIDUAL CULPABILITY OF THE ACCUSED UNDER THE NDPS ACT. BY – SUMIT GURJAR, VEDANT THAKUR & SAMRIDDH SHARMA

Authors: SUMIT GURJAR, VEDANT THAKUR, SAMRIDDH SHARMA

  • Journal IJLRA
  • ISSN 2582-6433
  • Volume 3
  • Issue 7
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International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis

  • AbbreviationIJLRA
  • ISSN2582-6433
  • AccessOpen Access
  • LicenseCC 4.0

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