Male Gaze Check: NDPS Court Frees Woman In Drugs Case

Mumbai: The special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court has acquitted a woman for drug peddling as the prosecution failed to prove the charges and she was checked before male cops.

Meanwhile, her alleged accomplice has been handed out a sentence of five years in jail for possession of mephedrone (MD, a narcotic substance with street name meow meow).

As per the case registered with the Anti Narcotic Cell (ANC), on January 21, 2020, officials suspected a woman seen near Nariyalwadi Kabrastan. She was apprehended with 110gm of MD. Identified as Saba Shaikh, a resident of Sion, she revealed having sourced the contraband from a Bandra resident, Veernal, who was arrested on January 24 that year and his real name was found to be Atesham Ansari. From his house, the ANC found 19gm MD.

Prosecution examined witnesses, submitted proof

During the trial, the prosecution examined eight witnesses, including the ANC team that caught Shaikh and independent panch witnesses present at the time of arrest of Shaikh and Ansari and during subsequent seizure of drugs from Ansari’s house.

Shaikh’s lawyer Shriganesh Sawalkar contended that the search and seizure was vitiated as she was searched in the gaze of a male police officer. Further, the panch witness didn’t support the case of prosecution and hence the testimonies of the police officers cannot be relied on without independent corroboration. The court held Ansari guilty only for possession of contraband as Shaikh’s role was not proved.