HC cancels bail granted to suspect in drug smuggling case

The Madras High Court has cancelled the bail granted to a suspect charged with smuggling large quantities of tablets containing zolpidem, a psychotropic drug substance used mostly for treatment of insomnia, to Malaysia.
Cancelling the bail granted to L Abudagir by an additional sessions court at Pudukottai, Justice V M Velumani said the sessions court failed to consider the gravity of the offence while granting the bail.
The central intelligence unit of customs had charged him with procuring the substance from medical representatives in Tiruchirappalli for smuggling it to Malaysia.
Counsel for CIC said Abudagir had acted as middle man to procure the drug from Tiruchirappalli on the advice of one Jamaludin of Ramanathapuram, settled in Dubai.

CIU officials initially arrested one Mohammed Syed Mustaffa, a medical representative, at a parcel service when he was booking a parcel containing 13000 tablets.The invoice seized from him showed the tablets were for a de-addiction centre at Tiruchirappalli.
After interrogating Mustafa, they arrested Abudagir at the parcel office at Chennai,and he told officials that he had attempted to procure the tablets on Jamaludin's advice, counsel for the CIU said.
He told them that the tablets were meant for smuggling to Malaysia.
The judge said records showed that Abudagir had committed an heinous crime. As per the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, there was a bar to grant bail to an accused in possession of commercial quantity of drugs, the judge added.