Special NDPS court acquits two accused in drug case

Mumbai: After spending four-and-a-half years behind bars, two persons, who were arrested for possession of 3

Mumbai: After spending four-and-a-half years behind bars, two persons, who were arrested for possession of 3.3 Kg of charas, were acquitted by the special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court based on several discrepancies in evidence and investigation.

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According to the case registered with the Narcotics Control Bureau, Mohammad Shafi Malik, 52, of Vile Parle and Abdul Nasir Shaikh, 62, of Govandi were arrested on February 4, 2018. It was claimed that the accused were intercepted at Santacruz on the basis of secret information and two bags were recovered. While one bag contained 15 dark brown colour spheroids weighing 1.46 kg, the other contained 50 oval-shaped substance weighing 1.84 kg.

During the trial, the NCB submitted that one of the panch witnesses, who was present at the time when samples were seized, was untraceable and another panch did not support the prosecution case about the procedure adopted at the time of search of the accused and recovery of the contraband.

Besides, it was pointed out that after taking out the samples for analysis the contraband was destroyed without the permission of the magistrate court, which is mandatory. Further, the defence had contended that there were discrepancies with regards to the weight of the seized contraband.

The court noted that, as per panchanama, the weight of the contraband deposited and the contraband destroyed after drawing samples varied and no explanation was forthcoming for such variation.

The court further observed that when the investigating officer was confronted with the discrepancies, he submitted that, “after drawing samples from packet M1 the weight of the bulk contraband was 1.41 kg and the weight of the second packet was 1.79 kg. However, in the certificate, the weight in the first carton was 1.33 kg and in the second carton 1.64 kg. After drawing the samples aggregate comes to 2.97 kg, which ought to have been 2.87 kg.”

Moreover, the officer had claimed that the samples were prepared after scraping each spheroid and placed in a transparent plastic back which was hot seal.

However, the defence pointed out that the samples were not in the same format when received by the chemical analyser. The defence claimed that the analyser had said that the samples were not in a hot seal or heat seal plastic pouch but kept in a plastic bag which had a self-locking ziplock mechanism. Secondly, when the sample was taken for analysis, it was a single sticky mass and not in the form of scraping.

The court noted that, “It is pertinent to note that the sample was dawn by scrapping some quantity of the material from each spheroid and in such case, it was not possible that the samples could have been in a sticky mass within a few days after it was taken to the analyser.”

Based on these discrepancies, the court gave benefit of doubt to the accused and acquitted them.