Police fail to explain delay, man acquitted in drug case

A Delhi court has acquitted a man of the charges of carrying smack after the police failed to explain the delay of 47 days in sending the drug sample to forensic lab.
Special Judge Sanjay Sharma absolved Ghaziabad resident Shafi of the charges under various sections of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, noting several lapses in police investigation.
"In view of non-compliance of sections of the NDPS Act, discrepancies/lapses in the prosecution case and unexplained delay of 47 days in sending sample parcel to Forensic Science Laboratory, the prosecution can be said to have miserably failed to prove its charge against accused Shafi," the judge said.

The court noted that as per the police, the contraband substance was recovered on February 11, 2012 and sample was sent to forensic lab for examination on March 26, 2012.
It also said that police could not give any explanation as to how the colour of the substance changed from white to brown.
Further, the court said that the secret information received by the police was not sent to any senior police officer within 72 hours of getting it, which was non-compliance of mandatory provisions of NDPS Act.

It also said that police also violated several other legal provisions while frisking the accused.

"Besides making a general assertion that 4-5 public persons were requested to join the raiding team, nothing has been brought on record to show that any genuine attempt was made to associate any public person in the raiding team.
"Routinely, such escape route is taken by the police as a ground for not associating public persons in search and seizure proceedings," it said.
According to the prosecution, Shafi was apprehanded on February 11, 2012 from Seemapuri area here with 10 gram smack.
The accused, however, had denied the allegations levelled against him.