CUTTACK: A person who had served more than five years in jail after being convicted for transporting ganja was acquitted after the Odisha High Court found that the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 were not complied with in the case.
Chhabilal Banchhor was arrested by police who had registered a case against him under NDPS Act after more than 27 kg of ganja were seized from his possession under Nuapada police station limits on August 22, 2016.
The court of sessions judge-cum-special judge, Nuapada sentenced Chhabilal to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and imposed Rs 1 lakh fine on February 25, 2019. He filed a criminal appeal later the same year.
The single judge bench of Justice Gourishankar Satapathy quashed the trial court judgment on Augus 21 and observed that there is absolutely no evidence to indicate that the inventory of the seized contraband was duly certified by any magistrate.
Furthermore, there was no evidence supporting the representative sample of seized contraband being taken in presence of magistrate nor the correctness of any list of samples was certified which would have constituted such documents as a primary evidence for the purpose of trial in respect of offence under NDPS Act.
“The scheme of section 52-A of NDPS Act makes it very clear that once contraband ganja is seized, the representative sample thereof is required to be drawn in presence of magistrate, otherwise the seized contraband ganja and samples drawn thereof could not be a valid piece of primary evidence in the trial,” Justice Satapathy observed.
Once the court is deprived of getting primary evidence of a fact, Justice Satapathy further ruled, the inevitable conclusion is that such fact is considered to be not proved or established beyond all reasonable doubt. “In this aforesaid situation and admitted evidence on record, this court does not find due compliance of section 52-A (2) of the NDPS Act,” he observed.
Accordingly, the HC ordered that the appellant be acquitted of the charge and set at liberty forthwith, if his detention was otherwise not required in any other case.