CHENNAI: A procedurally botched up attempt by Chennai Customs to have a ‘controlled delivery’ of a drug parcel ordered from Spain allegedly by two men near Auroville, Puducherry, during the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the acquittal of the accused by a trial court in Chennai last week.
The case pertains to the seizure of 994 tablets of the popular party drug ‘ecstasy’ (MDMA) and 249 stamps of LSD by Chennai Air Cargo Customs in July 2021. The parcel had been sent from Spain to a lodge, JMJ motherland, near Auroville.
Following an investigation, customs arrested Rubak Manikandan (29) and Loy Viegus (28) from the address. In an official release then, customs labelled them as ‘junkies’, based on their appearance.
This was after a dummy parcel was handed over as per the controlled delivery procedure to Rubak, who allegedly claimed ownership. Customs also found 5.55 kg of ganja in their room in the lodge. Loy was arrested for his alleged complicity in the crime. Rubak had told customs that the parcel was received on behalf of one Akhil from Kerala.
Controlled delivery is a technique to knowingly allow the drug consignment pass through to the receiver by the investigators to identify those involved in the offence
During trial, the judge noted that the officers handed over the dummy parcel to Rubak without ascertaining the ownership, given that no name was mentioned on the original parcel. What proved to be a major blow for the prosecution was that the parcel was neither handed over to the investigating officials nor was it produced in court. There was no explanation given as well. This made the judge state that the controlled delivery did not happen in accordance with the law.
Curiously, one of the independent witnesses the investigators used during the search was Suresh Kumar, the owner of the house being searched. This was noted by the judge after perusing both signatures, which seemed the same. No document was recovered from Rubak, while the judge also said that Loy was implicated in this case without any proof.
Crucially, investigators recorded statements of the accused under Customs Act, while the case had been registered under NDPS Act, the judge said.
Despite the prosecution’s case that both accused had procured the drugs for Akhil, the mastermind, the judge noted that customs dropped its investigation against him abruptly after making some headway and did not even arraign him as an accused in the case. This put their entire narrative under doubt, the judge said.
Customs also did not produce any document to prove that the accused had been staying at the lodge. Stating that the conduct of the investigation was shoddy, the judge concluded that the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond all reasonable doubts and acquitted the two.
