Mumbai NDPS Court Acquits Man After 6 Years In Prison Due To Procedural Error

Mumbai: The special NDPS court recently acquitted 45 year old, Mira road resident, Aslam Patel, after he has already spent around six years in prison for possession of 150 grams of Mephedrone in March 2015. The man was acquitted as the court noted that the samples of the contraband taken before the Magistrate and hence the report cannot be relied upon.

The special NDPS judge BY Phad held that Only samples drawn during proceedings before a Magistrate should be sent for chemical analysis and relied upon. Thus the court discarded the chemical analysis report which confirmed the contraband was Mephedrone, because the samples were drawn at the time of seizure from the spot and not before the magistrate.

As per the prosecution case, on March 16, 2015, the police received information about Patel coming to sale the contraband to a dealer at Sion in the afternoon. Accordingly, police accordingly arranged a trap and arrested Aslam Abdul Aziz Patel and Pappu Mohammad Inayat Khan. 

It was claimed that Patel was found in possession of 150 grams of Mephedrone, while Khan was found in possession of 100 grams of Mephedrone drug. The police at the time of seizure drew samples from the contraband seized from both of them.

While pending the trial, the two absconded after they were granted bail in July 2015. Patel was however apprehended in August 2019 and remained in prison after that.

The defence lawyers Ayaz Khan and Zehra Charania referred the ruling of the Apex court that the samples of the contraband had to be taken in front of the magistrate and not at the time of seizure. They contended that, the Supreme Court has held that there is no provision of drawing the samples at the time of alleged seizure and the samples have to be drawn only before the Magistrate.

The prosecution however, relied on the chemical analysis report which confirmed that the contraband was indeed Mephedrone, was based on the samples taken on the spot. 

The special NDPS judge however noted that, "it is not a disputed fact that the Chemical Analysis report in this case pertains to a sample taken on the spot, not before the Magistrate. Only samples drawn during proceedings before a Magistrate should be sent for chemical analysis and relied upon.