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NDPS court acquits Nigerian national due to faulty police probe
The police had taken two samples of 2 grams each from the seized 200 grams of Cocaine and sent the samples for forensic examination.
Mumbai: A special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court last week acquitted a Nigerian national prosecuted for alleged possession of 200 grams of cocaine in November 2017.
The accused, 29-year-old Kedrick Odo Bartho, was arrested on November 11, 2017, from Andheri (west) purportedly with cocaine weighing 200 grams. The prosecution case was that an officer attached to the DN Nagar police station had received information about a man coming with contraband material for sale. Accordingly, a trap was set up and Bartho was searched in front of independent panch witnesses. Upon search, the police found the drugs with him.
The police had taken two samples of 2 grams each from the seized 200 grams of Cocaine and sent the samples for forensic examination. The rest of the seized contraband was sealed and produced before the special court as evidence.
During trial when the defence lawyer weighed the contraband again in the court, it was found to be 207 grams, instead of 196 grams – 200 grams seized minus 4 grams removed in terms of two samples. The prosecution first claimed that it was possible because of the moisture in the air, but also claimed that sealing and labelling and the sampling of the bulk were weatherproof.
“If the weight of the substance at the time of depositing it in safe custody was 196 grams, then there must be some satisfactory evidence or explanation from the prosecution side how it was increased by 11 grams,” said the special court acquitting the accused by giving him benefit of doubt. “There is no explanation at all from the prosecution about the increase in the weight of the said contraband by 11 grams.”
The court said the prosecution had failed to comply with the mandatory procedure required to be followed while conducting a search of a person for any narcotic substance. As per the law, the search needs to be taken in front of two independent witnesses to ensure that they monitor the process.
The court said though the conversation between the police and the accused was in English, the panch witnesses did not understand the language and realised that it was all about the personal search of the accused, only after the police officer explained it to them.
The court, therefore, held that the police officers failed to comply with the mandatory provisions relating to search and seizure under the NDPS Act, 1985 to ensure that the procedure adopted is fair.