Court rejects discharge plea of accused who gave cocaine to actor

The special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act court on Monday rejected the discharge application filed by an accused in the drugs case in which Bollywood actor Fardeen Khan is a co-accused.

The special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act court on Monday rejected the discharge application filed by an accused in the drugs case in which Bollywood actor Fardeen Khan is a co-accused.

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Anthony Gomes had filed the application saying that the chemical analysis report from the forensic laboratory did not show significant percentage of cocaine in the tested drug sample.

However, special public prosecutor Usha Sisodia argued that when the drugs were recovered in 2001, results conducted on them had shown that there was a significant percentage of cocaine in the sample.

Further, she argued that now it is in the de-graded form as more than nine years have passed.

Narcotics Control Bureau sources said that the discharge of Gomes would have made their case weak as, according to them, Gomes was the main accused, who supplied drugs to co-accused Nasir Shaikh who in turn gave it to Khan.

Gomes had even argued that the police have not recovered any contraband substance from him and he was arrested only on the basis of the statement of a co-accused.

The Bureau had arrested Khan on May 5, 2001 from outside an ATM in Juhu for allegedly possessing cocaine.

Though Khan claimed that he attempted to purchase only one gram from Shaikh, the bureau alleged that they recovered nine grams from Khan and Shaikh.