Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 13: Principal Sessions Judge Ramban, Mohd Akram Chowdhary has acquitted Kashmir Singh, son of Gurnam Singh of Amritsar of the charges of smuggling of poppy straw as the prosecution failed to prove its case.
According to the police case, the accused was arrested on February 17, 2010 by Batote Police along with15 kg of poppy straw. After completion of investigation in the case, police presented challan in the court of law.
After hearing both the sides, Court observed, “the IO has very candidly admitted that neither the official, in whose custody the poppy was kept before forwarding that to FSL and the official taking samples to the FSL, had not been cited as witnesses. Executive Magistrate Abdul Rashid and one of the witnesses SPO Pyar Singh were not examined, by the prosecution though they were very important witnesses”.
“Pawan Abrol, who is forensic expert, had stated that morphine was detected in the sample and it had morphological features of poppy plant. However, in absence of cogent and credible direct evidence, his statement is of no consequence which is of corroborative value to base conviction of the accused”, Principal Sessions Judge said.
“In this backdrop of the matter, when the recovery and seizure are doubtful, the prosecution cannot be said to have succeeded to prove the case by leading any cogent and credible evidence”, the Court observed.
With these reasons and observations, Court held that the prosecution has failed to prove its case to bring home the charge against Kashmir Singh for want of cogent and credible evidence. Accordingly, Kashmir Singh was acquitted of the charge.
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