‘Fairy tale’: Court trashes STF canabbis probe

Kolkata: Dubbing a Kolkata Special Task Force (STF) arrest of a Hooghly resident at Paikpara bus stand in June 2022 for possessing 2.9 kg charas as a "fairy tale" probe, a Kolkata sessions court on Saturday acquitted a person of illegal drug possession charges for which he was in prison for nearly three years. From failing to produce general diaries and videography evidence to incomplete seizure, the probe loopholes prompted the judge to repeatedly criticise police for their handling of sensitive drug seizure cases.Raju Shaw, alias Barka, was arrested on June 21, 2022, for possessing illegal drugs. The STF carried out the raid reportedly after a tip-off. When arrested by the STF, Raju's brother Anil was also at the spot, but he was curiously let off. A forensic report proved that the seized drug was charas, but a shoddy probe ensured it could not be linked to Raju. City Sessions Court Additional District and Sessions Judge, Rohan Sinha, in his judgment, repeatedly questioned the STF for bypassing legal mandates.Judge Sinha said, "The NDPS Act provides for a strict procedure in the matter of search, seizure, sampling, and examination of samples. The law provides for severe punishments. It is trite, the graver the offence, the stricter is the proof. There are procedural safeguards in the act relating to search, seizure, and sampling etc to protect individuals from false implication and ought not be ignored." The judge made it clear, "An accused cannot be convicted on the ground of suspicion, no matter how strong it is."The judge also pointed out that two officers — a Tala PS additional OC and an STF sergeant — gave conflicting statements on whether the raid was video-graphed. The Tala officer said it was done, but the device was not in his possession, and the STF officer said it was not done. The judge asked, "Who is telling the truth?" The court said if it believes what the Tala officer said in court, then it would indicate that the STF "tried to conceal the truth" and the "prosecution withheld the video footage".On arresting Raju but releasing his brother Anil, the judge said, "The story about Anil Shaw, what the prosecution wants to project before this Court, seems like a fairy tale, which sounds good but difficult to believe, being a tarradiddle, for sure. This phenomenon, certainly, directs the needle of suspicion against the prosecution story." On why the general diaries were not produced in court, the judge said, "Why did the prosecution withhold this document? Did the prosecution want to bottle up something?"The court was also anguished that it was presented with incomplete — and in one case even unsigned — documents. "This court fails to express its anguish to condemn such an arid attitude of the prosecution in producing an incomplete document in the event of proving a vital aspect of this case, being the chain of custody of the narcotic," the judge said.