Madras HC sets aside conviction, 10 years sentence imposed on Nigerian national, two others in cocaine case

The Madras High Court on Thursday set aside the conviction, 10 years rigorous imprisonment as well as a fine of ₹10 lakh imposed by a trial court on a Nigerian national and two others

The Madras High Court on Thursday set aside the conviction, 10 years rigorous imprisonment as well as a fine of ₹10 lakh imposed by a trial court on a Nigerian national and two others for reportedly being in possession of cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy pills and pseudoephedrine outside a residential apartment at Porur in Chennai.

Justice G. Jayachandran allowed the individual appeals filed by the trio Chukwu Simon Obina, Arun Diwakar and K. Kumaresan and ordered that they should be set at liberty forthwith. The fine amount, if any, paid by them should also be returned, the judge said in his verdict reserved on April 26 and delivered during the vacation sitting on Thursday.

According to the prosecution, the trio were arrested by the Sub Inspector of SRMC Police Station in front of a multi-storied residential apartment on Porur bypass road at 10 p.m. on December 16, 2018. The arrest had taken place pursuant to a tip off received by the Sub Inspector through one of his sources.

However, on perusing the records, Justice Jayachandran found that the tip-off reduced to writing was vague and did not contain any details regarding the exact location or physical identity of the accused. In such circumstances, he wondered how the police officer could have spotted the residential apartment and caught the appellants.

The judge found the secret information reduced to writing to have been manipulated and ante-dated by the Inspector of Police. He also said the police failed to explain how the crime number of the case was found in the contraband packets that were sealed on the spot at least four hours before the registration of the First Information Report.

“This leads to a suspicion that the records were prepared elsewhere and not in the place and manner spoken by the prosecution,” the judge said and added that the recovery mahazar too did not contain the signature of the accused to prove that they were really recovered from them as claimed by the prosecution.

The seized contraband had reached the jurisdictional court only on December 24, 2018 and not on the immediate working day. The investigating officer who had gone on leave after the registration of the case had not produced documents to show with whom the custody of the contraband was between December 17 and 24 of 2018, the judge added.