Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 14: Principal Sessions Judge Kathua AK Koul has acquitted two accused namely Shesh Paul Singh and Mohd Aslam Dar, who were facing trial in charas smuggling case as prosecution miserably failed to prove the guilt. The Court, however, issued General Arrest Warrants against Kafil Ahmed, Nilesh Kumar and Younis Ali under Section 512 CrPC.
According to the police case, on July 19, 2011, a police party intercepted a Scorpio bearing registration No. 4283-DL3CAJ, which was on its way from Jammu to Pathankot, at Lakhanpur. On search of the vehicle, 12 packets of charas weighing 5 kilograms, were recovered. Accordingly, a case was registered against the accused persons and challan was presented after completion of investigation.
After hearing both the sides, Principal Sessions Judge Kathua observed, “NDPS Act provides a severe punishment as such investigating agency as well as the prosecution has to be more careful and assertive in dealing with such cases. But it appears that the investigators deal with such case in a very casual manner and the result is that the conviction rate under NDPS Act is very poor”.
“The cases fail mostly due to lack of skill of investigating officers or in some cases due to failure of FSL experts to examine the samples as per the required standards. It may be due to the lack of infrastructure in the forensic science laboratories but the hard reality is that the FSL reports are not up to the mark and the result is that accused derives benefit out of the omissions and commissions on the part of investigating officers and the FSL experts”, the Court said.
With these observations, Court acquitted the accused of the charges leveled against them.
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