The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court recently sought an inquiry into the matter.
Mozambique citizen Santos Maria Theresa Pinto Ferreira Dos will always remember Jagdish Singh Bhola. Both are drug dealers and have been arrested by the Mumbai police. Curiously, it was the drug seized from Bhola that set Dos free.
She was arrested in 2011 at the Mumbai airport for allegedly smuggling 1 kg of cannabis and sent to jail. In 2015, a sessions court acquitted her. Not because she was innocent. But because the contraband produced as evidence was the wrong one.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court recently sought an inquiry into the matter.
Bhola is an Arjuna Award winner and was arrested in 2009 for exporting drugs to Cambodia illegally. He was caught with 25kg of methamphetamine from Goregoan by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). There are more than 10 cases against him in Punjab and other parts of the country.
He was arrested with 25 kg of methamphetamine, also called ice, worth Rs 20 crore in the international market, near a mall in Goregaon. Later, six more were arrested.
The goof-up occurred in 2011 when the prosecution was examining witnesses. What complicated matters further was that the case was shifted midway from the court of judge Govind Sanap to the court of judge M Y A K Sheikh and later to Judge R Bhadgale.
Though the case was shifted, the bag containing the contraband was was not shifted to the designated court, which was about to start the trial. It was shown as evidence in Dos's case. Since the evidence did not match in Dos's case, she was acquitted for want of evidence.
According to special public prosecutor Francis Saldanha, "The Bhola case took a lot of time, since the Punjab police took a lot of time to produce the accused before the Mumbai court quoting security reasons." Further, three accused, who were arrested and later released on bail, went absconding.
"Since I was also the prosecutor in the case in which Dos was acquitted, I somehow happened to find a similarity in the contraband shown as evidence in her case, and I brought it to the court's notice. The court then sought an inquiry into the matter. A specially constituted committee sought an explanation from Anthony as to how the bag, a vital evidence, was used in some other case," he said.
Advocate Saldanha said:"We have now got hold of the contraband and seizure officer Prakash Anthony has been recalled by the prosecution to identify the bag."
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "DNA")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}