PANAJI: A Goa court has discharged a Nigerian national who was arrested by the Goa police on charges of drug trafficking along with two others in 2019.
Additional sessions judge Kshama M Joshi noted in her April 5 order that the Nigerian national, Sunday Onye Lucky, was arrested because a mobile phone SIM card seized by the police during the raid at a rented premises in Siolim in September 2019 was issued to him. Lucky was given the SIM card by the Nigerian high commission in his capacity as president of the All India Nigerian Students and Community Association.
But Lucky argued before the court that no drugs were found in his possession and that the SIM card in question was being used by an acquaintance who was also a member of the association.
The Goa police filed a case against two Nigerians Ifeanyi Okechukwu Obinna and Onunchukwu Chidiebere on charges that the police seized 60 grams of suspected cocaine and 15.4 gm of suspected MDMA during a raid on September 10, 2019. Lucky was later added as an accomplice since the SIM card was in his name.
The prosecution argued that Lucky was part of the network of drug peddlers and that a SIM card issued in his name was found in the phone being used by Chidiebere, the second accused.
But the court let him off the hook because of insufficient evidence.
{{/usCountry}}But the court let him off the hook because of insufficient evidence.
{{/usCountry}}“Conscious possession is a mandatory requirement to invoke the stringent provisions of the NDPS Act and Lucky did not have conscious possession of the contraband. There is no mention of Lucky in the information note nor he is implicated in the FIR, panchnama or the complaint and was never arrested in the crime and was always having valid passport and visa Joshi said in her order.
Lucky’s lawyer Ashwin Dalvi said he was discharged because the court felt there was no evidence against him.