Drug peddling accused walks free as cops’ theory falls flat

AMRITSAR: A special court here has acquitted a person accused of drug peddling. Dharminder Singh Bhinda was arrested on September 9, 2015 and charged with possessing 500 gm of heroin. The court stated that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Bhinda was found in conscious possession of 500-gm heroin, without any permit or license making him liable to be convicted and sentenced under Section 21 of the NDPS Act.

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 19

A special court here has acquitted a person accused of drug peddling.

Dharminder Singh Bhinda was arrested on September 9, 2015 and charged with possessing 500 gm of heroin. The court stated that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Bhinda was found in conscious possession of 500-gm heroin, without any permit or license making him liable to be convicted and sentenced under Section 21 of the NDPS Act.

The police had claimed that Bhinda was arrested near Kohali village by the CIA staff. The accused had pleaded that he was innocent as he was had been “implicated” in this case. In his statement he had stated that he was illegally picked up by the officials of the CIA staff from Gharum village in Tarn Taran in the evening hours of September 28, 2015 and later on a false recovery was planted upon him. He said the FIR registered against him was fake. He had alleged that there was a land dispute of his father with a co-villager who belonged to the ruling party in the state at that time. It was their rival at whose’ behest he was implicated, he maintained.

Legal counsel for the accused, advocate Raviraj Birinder Singh Bhullar, said, “A person accused of possessing contraband has the right to get himself searched in the presence of a gazetted officer or magistrate. The court observed that as the investigating officer and the then DSP had included their names in the options which were given to the accused, it was a violation of the Section 50 of the NDPS Act.” He said that the as per the law, the accused should be given a two-fold offer (to be searched either in the presence of a gazetted officer or a magistrate) but the police officials had given a three-fold offer and included their names in the offer besides that of a gazetted officer or a magistrate.

The court stated that the seizure of illicit article without following provisions of Section 50 couldn’t be used as evidence of unlawful possession of illicit article on the person from whom that contraband had been seized.

What went wrong for police

The CIA staff had arrested Dharminder Singh Bhinda of Gharum village, Tarn Taran, on September 9, 2015 for "possessing" 500 gm of heroin. Bhinda pleaded innocence as he claimed that he had been implicated at the behest of a villager with whom his family had a property dispute. According to Bhinda's counsel Raviraj Birinder Singh, “A person accused of possessing contraband has the right to get himself searched in the presence of a gazetted officer or magistrate. The court observed that as the investigating officer and the then DSP had included their names in the options which were given to the accused, it was a violation of the Section 50 of the NDPS Act."