Court acquits man in drug case

A man accused of possessing over six kg of the contraband ganja has been acquitted by a Delhi court which said that the prosecution could not substantiate the charges levelled against him.
Additional sessions judge Narinder Kumar absolved south Delhi resident Naushad of the offence under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act pertaining to possession of banned drugs.
"No independent witness was joined in the party, despite availability, there are material contradictions and discrepancies in the statements of prosecution witnesses and the record made available...
"... This court finds that prosecution has failed to substantiate accusation levelled against the accused that he kept ganja in his possession," the judge said, while adding that there were material contradictions in statements of prosecution witnesses.

The court noted that there were different versions of police witnesses which contradicted each other in terms of quantity of the contraband substance as well as the procedure followed under the NDPS Act.
It observed that while one constable deposed that six kg ganja were recovered, another said the amount was eight kg.

It also noted that there was a big time gap between the reported recovery date and when it was deposited in the forensic lab.
"... Possibility of tampering with the case property cannot be ruled out," it said.
According to the police, on the evening of March 29, Naushad was apprehended on suspicion as he started running away on seeing the police patrolling in the area.

It was alleged that when his bag was searched, seven pouches with 6.8 kg ganja were recovered.
Naushad claimed that he had come to Delhi from Kolkata by train and when he was looking for an autorickshaw outside the railway station near Ajmeri Gate, police officials caught hold of him and forcibly took him to a police station where he was falsely implicated in the case.