CHENNAI: Three youth arrested by the Greater Chennai Police from a popular mall in the western part of Chennai in 2022 on charges of peddling LSD stamps were acquitted by a city special court on Friday after the investigators failed to produce proper evidence.
In May 2022, the Thirumangalam police station arrested Abdul Hameed (21) and Doccus Saleth Freeman (24) for possession of 24 LSD stamps and 577 grams of hash ganja under the NDPS Act. Later, the police also arrested S Srikanth (28) as part of the probe. Apart from the drugs, the police allegedly seized an electronic weighing machine, some costly smartphones and a car from the accused.
During trial, the special court judge found certain issues with the evidence; for instance, there were minor differences in the location of arrest in the testimony of multiple policemen involved in the arrest. The court pointed out that CCTVs were available to capture the arrest and the video evidence was not filed before the court.
The court also found that there was a difference in the weight of drugs claimed to have been seized by the the policemen and the information on it filed before court. Despite the seizure of mobilephones, the investigating officers did not present any evidence regarding the allegation that the accused indulged in commercial transactions regarding the drugs. The police also did not produce any evidence to show collusion between the accused.
Based on these doubts, the special court acquitted the trio on Friday.