Hyderabad: Six held with marijuana in 2019 acquitted due to police lapses

Hyderabad: Six persons, including two women, who were arrested in May 2019 for possession of marijuana were acquitted by the court due to procedural and legal lapses on the part of the police.

The Mangalhat police made the seizure, but it was sent for forensic analysis only in January 2023 and subsequently, deposited in court after four years. Also, a requisition to certify the inventory and drawing samples before a magistrate was done after three months of the seizure.

The court pointed out that the seizure panchnama (inquest) report did not have the signatures of the accused. “While the NDPS Act mandates investigators to obtain the willingness to be searched from each of the suspects, police, in this case, did not obtain the individual willingness of the accused,” the court observed.

The court noted that while suspects had to be searched in the presence of a gazetted officer, the police did not make an effort to secure one. “The time of alleged incident is a day time and the place of offence is situated in the heart of Hyderabad city, where they can easily secure a gazetted officer,” the court noted.

Given the discrepancies at the time of seizure, collecting samples for FSL analysis and producing the seized material, the court ruled that the seized ganja was also tampered with.