KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has observed that inordinate delay in the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases involving serious offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and thereby prolonging the trial is a blot on the justice system. Lack of staff and high-end equipment to test new generation drugs remains a hurdle.
The court also pointed out as many as 5,148 narcotic cases were registered in 2017-18 alone. The delay in upgrading the state-run laboratories and the failure to set up new labs will definitely affect the investigation and the trial. The court issued the order while considering a bail petition by an undertrial prisoner involved in a drug case.
Though the final report has been filed in this case, the prosecution has not come with any material to conclusively establish the seized substance is brown sugar or any other narcotic substance. When the analysis report was sought, the prosecutor did not file it, saying the analysis of the contraband cannot be taken up expeditiously due to poor infrastructural facilities of the labs. The court observed that this was not an isolated case.
Lack of infrastructure, inadequate manpower, exponential increase in narcotics cases and the absence of pure reference samples have been cited as reasons by the Chief Chemical Examiner and the Forensic Lab Director for the delay in providing analysis reports.