A 30-year-old alleged to be a supplier in the Cordelia drugs case Abdul Shaikh has alleged that the drug recovery from him was planted and has said he could produce CCTV footage to show that a panch who has criminal antecedents was present during the search procedure was carrying a bag when the procedure was ongoing.
“One panch Mr. Adil Fasal Usmani is carrying a while colour bag at the time when the panchnama was prepared…which can easily be seen by the CCTV footage obtained from DB Mall located near the panch spot,” said Shaikh, in his bail application filed through advocate Apoorv Srivastava. Shaikh said the panchnama is silent on whether the NCB officer was searched and this leaves a suspicion whether the contraband was recovered from himself or if it was a planted recovery.
Numerous times in the past, questions have been raised on the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) panch witnesses. While one, Kiran Gosavi, has multiple criminal cases on him and is now in judicial custody, a few have alleged that they had been made to sign blank papers by the agency. NCP leader Nawab Malik had alleged that one panch Fletcher Patel is known to the agency’s Zonal director Wankhede and had been in panch in three of its cases, including Rhea Chakraborty case.
The application pointed out that the footage showed that the panch Usmani rode Shaikh’s bike after the panchnama was prepared. It said that the panch’s conduct is questionable and if he is amenable to members of the NCB’s search party, he cannot be relied upon by courts. The application further said that Usmani is a habitual panch as reported by a media outlet.
It also pointed out that the other panch Vijendra Waingankar who is mentioned in the document is not seen in the footage. “The panch is a resident of Naigaon and not a local resident…which leaves suspicion on his credibility,” the application read.
“The fact that one of the two panch witnesses has various criminal antecedents, further casts aspersions over the veracity of the contents of the panchnama,” it added. It pointed out that while the panchnama stated that both panchas presented themselves at the bus pick up shed opposite Shoppers Stop at Juhu Link Road on Oct 2, the panchnama is dated Oct 3. “This is a major discrepancy between the dates when the panchas were called or presented themselves and the date of the panchnama,” it stated.
