KOCHI: Retired IPS officer Sam Christy Daniel was instrumental in proving the innocence of three young engineers of CIAL, who were framed and arrested by excise officials in a drug case three years ago. Were it not for the detailed probe by him while he was holding the post of additional excise commissioner in 2019, the lives of the three youths would have been destroyed. As incidents of fake cases being reported on the rise, Sam Christy believes, many a time, the officials who cook up such fake cases against the innocent get away with just a suspension or a transfer.
“It’s high time the government took strict action against those who misuse their official capacity to frame charges against innocent people,” he said. Sam Chrsity recalled the NDPS case in which Bengaluru native Reshwanth Reddy, Namakkal native Jagadeshan S and Chennai resident Barath were framed by a group of seven excise officers to put an end to their career as assistant aviation officers in Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) at Nedumbassery.
“I feel contented when I look back at the probe I conducted to prove that it was a fabricated case,” he said. “Drugs were planted by the officials to target the three youngsters. They were harassed, put in jail. I always believed that all my postings were given to me by God for a purpose,” he said. Advocate Geo Paul, who took up the case despite odds being stacked against the accused, said the youngsters hailing from other states had completely been in a shock for days as they were clueless why they were picked up by an excise team from their room.
“Of the thousands of criminal cases being registered in the state in a year, there are a few cases in which pieces of evidence are planted to frame the innocent,” he said. “While there are specific laws that mandate strict procedures for search, seizure and arrest of an accused in an NDPS case, officers do not follow it. In the case of the three engineers also, the excise officers didn’t follow the protocol. Every citizen should know about the laws as such officers make use of the ignorance,” Geo added. There is also a provision of registering a case under Section 58 of NDPS Act against the officer who willfully and maliciously give false information and so causing vexatious entry, search, seizure or arrest of the other person, he added.