Probe officer not examined, court acquits Mohali man in drug case

Chandigarh, June 14

While observing that the prosecution has failed to examine the investigating officer (IO) during the trial, a local court acquitted a person arrested after he was allegedly found in the possession of charas seven years ago.

The police had arrested Nimish Jaiswal, a resident of Mohali district, on August 19, 2017, with 50 gram of charas in an area under the jurisdiction of the Sector 17 police station. The police had registered the FIR against the accused for the offence punishable under Section 20 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

After completion of the investigation, the police filed the chargesheet against the accused in the court .

Finding a prima facie case, a charge under Section 20 of the NDPS Act was framed against the accused, to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

The public prosecutor argued that the prosecution had proved the case beyond a shadow of doubt.

On the other hand, Prabal Vikrant, the counsel for the accused, argued that the accused was falsely implicated in the case. He stated that the prosecution miserably failed to prove its case. After hearing of the arguments, Ankit Airi, Judicial Magistrate First Class, Chandigarh, observed that the prosecution had not been able to prove its case against the accused beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt. The court said “one important witness, namely ASI Raj Pal, the IO of the present case who had handled the case property, was never examined in this matter. This taints the entire case of the prosecution to its roots and it becomes certain that no conviction order of the accused could ever be passed in the matter for the link evidence was not complete in this matter”.