HC grants bail to Chandivali resident arrested with 400 kg marijuana

A single judge bench of justice NJ Jamadar accepted the argument that there was no compliance with the procedural requirements. The judge noticed that the raid was conducted at night, but no search warrant or authorisation was obtained

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court granted bail to a Chandivali resident on Tuesday, who had been arrested by the Sakinaka police in 2021 after they had allegedly found around 400 kg marijuana in his possession. The court primarily gave bail because the police failed to adhere to mandatory procedural requirements.

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On January 14, 2021, a team of the Sakinaka police was on patrolling duty, when it received information about marijuana stored in a room in a SRA building in Chandivali. As the police team reached the spot, the accused, Ashok Mhetre, who occupied the room, fled from the scene.

The police found the room stuffed with 10 gunny bags containing cannabis, which weighed 345.375 kg. They seized the contraband, and few days later, tracked down Mhetre who revealed during the course of the interrogation that he had another stock of cannabis. Accordingly, the police went to the address given by him and seized 50.177 kg cannabis from another building in Chandivali, taking the total contraband allegedly seized from him to around 400 kg.

In 2021 itself, Mhetre had approached high court after a special NDPS court rejected his bail plea. His counsel, advocate Zehra Charania, pointed out that the police had failed to adhere to the requirement under section 42 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. She submitted that no search warrant or authorisation was obtained although the raid was conducted between sunset and sunrise, as required under Section 42.

Charania also pointed out that though 51 separate packets containing cannabis were seized, samples were drawn only from three packets and, that too, at the time of the seizure itself, though the law requires samples to be drawn in the presence of a magistrate. She submitted that, therefore, the samples drawn by the police cannot be termed as samples representing the entire bulk allegedly recovered from the accused.

A single judge bench of justice NJ Jamadar accepted the argument that there was no compliance with the procedural requirements. The judge noticed that the raid was conducted at night, but no search warrant or authorisation was obtained. “Prima facie, there appears non-compliance of the mandate contained in Section 42 of the NDPS Act, 1985,” said the court.

It further noted that the seizure memorandum recorded that 10 nylon gunny bags contained 151 packets and each of those packets contained cannabis. “Out of them, only three packets were opened and samples of 50 grams were collected therefrom. In other words, the aspect of sampling was not free from infirmities,” the court said.

Hence, justice Jamadar ordered Mhetre to be released on furnishing a personal bond of ₹1 lakh and one or two sureties in the same amount.