No law recommends cops are not reliable witnesses, says court

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Chandigarh, August 22

There is no law which recommends that police officials are unworthy of belief or are not competent and reliable witnesses. There is no iota of circumstance on file to show that these police witnesses already knew the accused or had any enmity/grudge against him, which might have made them implicate him in such a case under the NDPS Act, which entails heavy punishment. While observing this, Rajeev K Beri, Judge, Special Court, Chandigarh, sentenced Lovepreet Singh of Sector 56 here to 10-year rigorous imprisonment (RI) in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act case. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the convict.

The police arrested the accused on October 10, 2017, near the Sector 56 petrol pump on the charge of carrying drugs illegally. The police claim that a polythene bag he was carrying contained 14 injections of Buprenorphine (each of 2 ML) and 14 Injections of Pheniramine Maleate (10 ML each). He failed to produce any permit or licence to possess these 28 injections.

The counsel for the accused claimed that the police falsely implicated him. There was no independent witness by the investigating agency. The accused was not served any notice about search as per Section 50 of the NDPS Act.

The court said mere non-joining independent witnesses would not make these police witnesses unreliable. The quantity of 28.1 grams of the contraband containing Buprenorphine falls in commercial category when it is above 20 grams. The prosecution, thereby, has been able to bring home the charge under Section 22 (c), NDPS Act, against the accused.