Citing lack of evidence, Telangana high court acquits three in drugs case

Hyderabad: The Telangana high court quashed a drugs case registered in 2022 at Bolarum against three people, including a BPO employee and his friends.

While hearing a petition filed by the trio, the high court observed that they could not be held responsible based solely on the confession of the other accused, especially in the absence of any corroborative evidence. Hence, the continuation of criminal proceedings against the trio is nothing but an abuse of the process of law, the court said while quashing the FIR.

Delivering the judgment, Justice K Sujana noted that the police failed to collect any evidence linking the petitioners to the alleged crime apart from the confession of another accused. The police also did not send the seized mobile phones of the three petitioners to the FSL for analysis, nor were their blood samples sent for medical examination to prove that they consumed the alleged drugs, the judge remarked.

“In view of the observations based on the Supreme Court judgments, the trio cannot be held liable for the alleged crime,” said Justice Sujana.

The prosecution contended that the accused were transporting hash oil from Visakhapatnam and supplying it to users in the city. The police caught two individuals, and six hash oil tins and Rs 1,500 cash were also seized from them. However, counsel for the petitioners argued that no drugs were found in possession of the petitioners, nor were they involved in sourcing any prohibited narcotic drugs.

‘Falsely implicated’

“They were falsely implicated in the case solely based on the confession of one of the accused. Even according to the Supreme Court in the Tofan Singh vs State of Tamil Nadu case, this evidence is not admissible,” the counsel for the petitioner argued.