Of late, lot more was written and discussed on drug abuse by the media. No need to explain why so much interest suddenly generated in our Country over narcotics – Firstly, a 3,000 kilogram of heroin was recovered from the self-made man’s owned seaport at Mundra in Gujarat. Secondly, a Cruise Ship drug trafficking case on the Mumbai-Goa coastline, in which the celebrities children were said to have in possession – a few grams of banned psychotropic substances.
What media did not discuss much or have not focused in detail till now is, seizure of 3 tonnes of banned drugs from a privately owned seaport operated by none other than India’s most powerful businessman, and whose turnover was said to have skyrocketed during Corona period, allegedly, just because of his political connections with the Delhi’s power-centre. Such phenomenal success of a single entity was in contra to that of other Companies growth rate struck by Pandemic. Anyways!
Leaving aside such a big captioned story, importance was given to a Cruise Ship episode by both the national and vernacular media on equal footing for about 26 days – till the Accused have come out of Jail. Otherwise, an alleged recovery was just a handful of banned drugs those were in possession of those celebrities’ children! Admittedly, NCB conceded, they did not seize any banned psychotropic substances nor did the person was high on the weed energy while referring to a Bollywood Hero’s Son’s arrest.
It does not mean, we encourage [in this commentary] small quantity against commercial quantity or playing favoritism. Point is, both are crime, but those offences should have handled on equal terms in the manner known to the Law, but that didn’t happen and that is why we are compelled to write this pick.
I borrow the words of former Supreme Court Judge Mr. Madan Lokur, who recently informed his audience in a Seminar, “We have been talking about bail to Aryan Khan. Good he has got bail. But there are two lakh other such cases are pending.”
Yes, we do have the same question to those Judges who speaks up their mind frankly and rationally in the public arena against illness in the justice delivery system – but why only after their superannuation, not during their tenure? No answer. But, any ordinary man knew the truth.
Narcotics, no doubt, is evil in the society. But, how come an enforcement agency only arrest and seize handful of drugs from the drug addicts or a small time peddlers, but not those big sharks – who are left untouched in this billion dollar trade operated by them across the Country?
I think for the first time in the Narcotics Control Bureau [NCB] history, the agency on its own fell in a trap laid down by a few private persons who did it in a movie-style. The nation knew who were behind this mug shot and its purpose – a sweet revenge of sort against a corrupt Cop by a Hero – just happened in our brainless movies!
From the media reports what we understand is, when NCB admitted in the Court they have not seized anything from the Actor’s Son nor was he high on drugs – the same led to a thick smoke of suspicion on the NCB Cop – then why he was arrested? And how the Sessions Court ignored such unlawful arrest and how the Remand Court remanded him to NCB’s custody?
NCB’s such admission in the Court makes a common man believe, there might have been an INR 180 million [alleged] haggling was true for the safe release of Actor’s Son! Because, NCB admitted categorically that the arrested person was innocence.
As far NDPS Act is concerned any person, who according to a Cop, is in possession of narcotic substances with him, and that person must be informed by the Cop, under the Law, he has got the right of search before the Magistrate or a Gazetted Officer. However, the same Act gives power of search to the Cop, if the person to be searched refuses to be searched before the referred designated neutral authorities. Burden on the Cop is, he has to prove that he made the offer but the Accused had refused it! And if the Investigation Officer succeeds, then the burden shifts on the Accused to disprove the IO contention. And this Provision does not apply to a person who was arrested in the Public. So the enforcers on both counts i.e., they offered the right of search to the Accused before appropriate authorities and then the search was conducted in the public place, but not in private – go unchecked by the Courts minutely, because NDPS Act itself is framed in such a way that;
Section 35 of the Act – presumption of culpable mental state – makes the Courts at the first instance to believe that the Accused had committed offence and that is why he was arrested and produced before it.
Does Section 35 of the Act takes away liberty of an innocent person [if he is trapped by the enforcers] when his Bail Application got rejected on such proviso? The answer is YES. What Justice Mr. Madan Lokur was referring about those 200,000 cases are – and if those cases are critically analysed [each of the case] chances are there at least 75% of the cases were of an imposed [put-up] one.
Drug consumers are easy victim to the NDPS Officers; if latter be able to apprehend the former, then Former would be converted as Peddler by the Latter and the case was booked in such a way that the Consumer becomes a Seller and Peddler becomes a Handler of Commercial Quantity and so on… So the fact is enforcers of NDPS Act are safeguarding interest of drug cartels and the drug cartels are flourishing with the blessings of the corrupt officials. Innocent drug consumers are languishing in the jails. Isn’t it a vicious cycle! This is the moral of the story we have been taught in the Actor’s Son’s case.
We have precedents before us, wherein a person holding few bottles of cough syrup without a prescription was arrested under the NDPS Act. The Court heard the case and took a stand that the arrest was lawful.
Legally speaking certain provisions of The NDPS Act require changes to safeguard the victims’ interest from the Corrupt Law Enforcers and now is the time.