Afghan national acquitted of drug charges

A 40-year-old Afghan national, accused of possessing six kg of heroin, has been acquitted by a Delhi court which said recovery of the contraband from him was "not convincing enough" and "highly doubtful".
Special judge M K Nagpal let off Harpreet Singh, charged under various sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, and directed that he be deported to his country.
"... Since he is not an Indian national and is a national of Afghanistan, he be dealt with accordingly as per law," the court ordered.
The court also acquitted Erfan, another accused and a resident of Delhi, who remained absconding during the trial.

"It is found that the evidence led by the prosecution on record regarding the recovery of the contraband substance from the possession of the accused is not convincing enough and is highly doubtful and it cannot be made the basis of conviction of the accused.
"... No other corroborative evidence has also been led on record to establish the existence of any criminal conspiracy between the two accused to deal in contraband substances or to possess the above quantity of heroin," the court said.

Singh was arrested by officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in February 2008 on a tip-off that he would be coming to Uttam Nagar here with a bag containing heroin to deliver it to someone else.

According to the prosecution, when Singh saw the DRI team, he tried to escape but he was apprehended and the heroin consignment was recovered from him.
DRI had said that the packets were given to Singh by Erfan and they were to be delivered by him to an African national at a five star hotel here.
However, during the trial, Singh had claimed that he was innocent and falsely implicated.