Nigerian, Kashmiri youth acquitted in drugs case

Panaji: Inconsistency in the statements of senior officers of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) led to the acquittal of a Nigerian national and a Kashmiri who were arrested in connection with possession for illegal narcotic substance of commercial quantity in 2014 at Anjuna.
The accused, Franklin Chukwuemeka, was arrested by NCB on charges of possession of 100 roundtablets in polythene cover, totally weighing 27.9231g, in which amphetamine was detected and also illegal possession of 5 perforated thick paper sheets, weighing 0.3554g in which LSD was detected.The NCB alleged that the Nigerian national and Kashmiri youth, Ashiq Hussain Shah, were parties to criminal conspiracy to commit offence under the NDPS Act. During the trial, the investigation officer Harish Gangan deposed that he received the information orally from an informer and he had not reduced it to writing. NCB superintendent Ravikumar Rana deposed, that on that day on February 15, Gangan, came into his cabin at around 2pm, and at that time Gangan had shown him the hand written information note.
"As Gangan deposed , that he had not reduced the information to writing, it would indicate that he has not deposed truthfully and in accordance with the contents of the complaint. Thus, there is a cloud of suspicion over the place and the time when the information had been received by Gangan, and the note which he had reduced to writing," Desmond D'Costa, Special Judge, NDPS Court, Mapusa observed.
The court noted that Gangan produced a typed information note on which there is the endorsement of the superintendent,that Gangan should form a team and mount surveillance at the location to effect seizure.
But the handwritten note on which the superintendent had written his inspection has not been produced before the court by Gangan, thereby raising the first doubt about the truthfulness of the depositions of Gangan and Rana, the court held.
The court said that the complainant failed to prove the case due to inconsistencies about when and where the information had been received and reduced into writing by Gangan, the suspicion about the use of the Bolero jeep and the Indica car, in view of the glaring overwritings in the log books , and in view of the several inconsistencies brought out between the depositions of the raiding party members.
Regarding the seal, the judge observed that the investigation officer had not had not deposed how the NCB brass seal had come into his possession.
During the argument, advocate T George, for the accused, Franklin, submitted that the log books of the two NCB vehicles stated to have been used in the raid show that one covered 40 kms. and the other covered 79 kms, thereby creating a doubt whether the raid had been conducted.
Special public prosecutor D Dhond submitted that the Indica car had covered more distance than the Bolero Jeep as after the raid, Gangan and intelligence officer V M Shinde had been searching for the house of the accused No.2 (Ashiq Hussain Shah) at Assagao and thus covered the extra distance.