CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has found that a false case was registered against two people over the alleged possession of psychotropic substances. The court ordered the revocation of the case and the immediate release of the duo.
The court also directed the Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) to initiate criminal action against the police officer who registered the false case and imprisoned them.
Justice G Chandrasekharan passed the orders recently on the petition filed by R Surya and R Sathish who were framed by the Tiruvottiyur police in a psychotropic substances case in 2022.
According to the FIR, the duo was found in possession of the contraband under an overbridge near the Cattle Market in Tiruvottiyur at 12.30 pm on July 29, 2022.
They were slapped with a case under various sections of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and subsequently, remanded to judicial custody.
However, they moved the High Court seeking to quash the case claiming it was foisted because they were actually present at the judicial magistrate (JM) court at Katpadi in Vellore at 10.30 am in connection with another case.
Going by the material placed before the court, the judge held, “Certainly, it is not possible,” for the accused persons, who attended the court hearing in Katpadi, 160 km away from Chennai, to be found with the contraband at about 12.30 pm on the same day in Tiruvottiyur.
He noted that records of the Katpadi court clearly established the fact that the petitioners were present in the Katpadi court on the said date.
“It is obvious that the case registered for the offences under the sections of NDPS Act, 1985 by the Tiruvottiyur police station is palpably false,” he ruled.
The judge also negated, by quoting certain previous orders of the courts, the contention of the prosecution that plea of alibi cannot be taken for consideration in a quash petition.
Finding the CCTV footage collected from the premises of the JM court in Katpadi showing the presence of the petitioners and the “indubitable record” of the same court proving the case of the petitioners, Justice Chandrasekharan concluded that continuation of the criminal proceedings against the duo would amount to “harassment and abuse of process of law”.
“It is clearly established that it is a false case and is liable to be quashed and accordingly is quashed,” the judge ordered.
He directed the DGP to initiate criminal and departmental action against the concerned sub-inspector for registering the false case against the petitioners and keeping them lodged in judicial custody till now.
The judge ordered the authorities to release them immediately if they are not required in any other case.