Pointing to various loopholes in the prosecution’s story and calling it “untrustworthy”, a special court has acquitted a 42-year-old Nigerian accused of peddling cocaine with another African in the Wadibunder bridge area of Dongri in 2017, five years after he was booked by the state’s Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC).
The ANC had claimed that Friday Joy, a resident of Mira Road, was found with 105 grams of the drug on search and his accomplice had escaped by jumping from the bridge.
The court said in its order, “One cannot lose sight of the fact that Wadibunder bridge is an overbridge over railway tracks. Local trains with electric engines pass from beneath… There are high tension electric wires below the middle part of this bridge and its height is definitely more than railway wagons.” It said that in such circumstances it is difficult to believe that the person jumped from the centre of the bridge where there are high tension electric wires and from a dangerous height.
'Behavior of prosecution casts suspicion'
Special Judge VG Raghuvanshi also raised questions on why the police called independent witnesses for its search procedure from 4km away from Crawford Market and Cuffe Parade though Dongri is in the heart of the city. “This behavior of the prosecution casts suspicion over the genuineness of the case,” Judge Raghuvanshi stated. The procedure was started 45 minutes after Joy was allegedly apprehended at the bridge. The court said that by calling witnesses from a nearby locality the police could have avoided the lapse of 45 minutes.
Referring to the testimony of witnesses during trial, the court said they have given different versions on important aspects and that their testimony makes the prosecution case “untrustworthy”.
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
