HC refuses bail to Nigerian arrested with 460g of MD

The accused, Blessing Amaka Okonko, was arrested on January 1, 2023, after a crackdown on drugs by the Ghatkopar unit of the Anti-Narcotics Cell

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of a Nigerian woman accused of supplying mephedrone (MD), holding that there were no reasonable grounds to believe she was not involved in the offence. Justice Neela Gokhale also noted that she could commit the offence against or evade trial if released.

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The accused, Blessing Amaka Okonko, was arrested on January 1, 2023, after a crackdown on drugs by the Ghatkopar unit of the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC). Okonko’s earlier bail plea before the special NDPS Court had also been denied.

According to the prosecution, on December 31, 2022, ANC officials had heard that narcotic substances were being sold in the city. That evening, while patrolling near the Mahim-Sion Link Road bridge, officers intercepted two men and recovered 40 grams and 110 grams of MD from them. During interrogations, one of the accused, Reddy Mallesh Shadkinur, named Okonko as his supplier.

ANC officers then traced Okonko in the early hours of January 1, 2023 and recovered 460 grams of MD from her jacket pocket, and then arrested her.

Okonko’s representatives argued that the police had failed to comply with mandatory provisions of the NDPS Act, including Sections 42 and 50, which require the accused to be informed in writing of their right to be searched before a magistrate or gazetted officer. Her representatives added that there was no call data records or digital evidence proving that the accused and the co-accused had spoken to each other. They also stressed that Okonko had already spent over two years in custody.

Opposing bail, the state said that all procedural safeguards under the NDPS Act had been followed. The state also pointed out that the accused was living illegally in India with her visa having expired, and argued that if she was released it would be hard to ensure her presence during the trial.

After reviewing the documents, justice Gokhale held that the co-accused’s information was recorded in writing and forwarded to a senior officer. The court also accepted that Okonko had voluntarily consented to a personal search, ruling out any breach of section 50, which says that officers must inform the accused of their right to be searched before a gazetted officer.

The court emphasized that the 460 grams of MD recovered from the accused amounts to a commercial quantity, which attracts the stringent bail restrictions under Section 37 of the NDPS Act. It observed that “reasonable grounds” require a substantial probability of innocence which was not met in this case.