The special court for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act has discharged Australia national, Paul Bartel, booked in connection with the drug-trail linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. He has been acquitted for want of evidence.
Special judge Mahesh K Jadhav observed, “As there is no material to prove the factum of actual involvement of the applicant in the commission of the alleged offence, no charge can be framed…"
Bartel was booked by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) with the allegation that he was in touch with arrested accused and drug supplier Agisilaos Demetriades, a South African national and brother of actor Arjun Rampal’s partner Gabriella Demetriades.
The prosecution claimed that Bartel was a part of the chain of drug dealers engaged in illicit traffic and was in touch with drug peddlers. It said that his WhatsApp chat with co-accused Agisilaos was itself sufficient to prove his nexus with peddlers, and that there was a strong case against him for consumption of small quantities of contraband.
Defence lawyers Zehra Charnia and Ayaz Khan contended that Bartel was falsely implicated on the basis of statements of Agisilaos and Bandra-based businessman Nikhil Saldanha. The lawyers said that the statement of the co-accused is not admissible and cannot be relied on.
With reference to the WhatsApp chat brought up by the prosecution, the court said that though a phone was seized from Bartel’s house there was no record to show that it belonged to him. The court said beyond this there is no chat with any of the co-accused.
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The special court said, “On perusal of the entire record, it appears that there was no monetary transaction between the applicant/accused with the co-accused. There is (also) no evidence on record to show the conspiracy between the applicant/accused with the co-accused.” The court also noted the absence of a chemical analysis report to reflect that the applicant/accused consumed any narcotic substance.
