HC acquits man in 2006 drug case
The Bombay high court has set aside a lower courts order that sentenced a person to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for possession of drugs. A lower court had convicted Abdul Gafar for the possession of 34 kilogram of charas on March 4, 2006.
Justice R.C. Chavan, while hearing the appeal of Gafar that challenged the order, said that the lower court judge could have given a benefit of doubt to the accused. Gafar, in his appeal, said that he was picked up from a footpath and was being framed.
In March 2006, the anti-narcotic cell (ANC) received information that one of the wanted criminals, Javed Chikna and his wife Banu were dealing in charas from one of the houses in Dongri. It was also informed that Chikna was storing the contraband at Gafar’s house, and that Gafar was assisting him.
Acting on a tip-off, the police raided Gafar’s house and reportedly found 34 kilogram of charas from the house, following which samples were drawn up from the seized contraband and sealed. On testing the samples, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) stated that the sample was charas. Based on this information and witnesses, the lower court convicted Gafar to 10 years jail, and also asked him to pay `1 lakh as fine.
Advocate Sartaj Sheikh, representing Gafar, said that the sample analysed by the laboratory was not the same the sample from the contraband allegedly seized from Gafar’s house. She said that the sample was first stored in a warehouse for two days before being sent for analysis. She argued that the seal on the sample that was analysed was different from that on the one seized. She also pointed out that the prosecution had neither examined the warehouse keeper, nor produced the warehouse register. Thus giving room for doubt.
While acquitting Gafar, Justice Chavan said that the order was passed on two accounts. Firstly, the seal on the sample seized, and the seal on the sample analysed, do not tally. Secondly, that the warehouse register was not produced, nor was the warehouse keeper examined.
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