Journalism of Courage
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The Bombay High Court on Wednesday, while granting relief to a foreign national arrested in October 2020 for allegedly possessing narcotics, directed the state home department to inform as to how it would compensate the man who was jailed on erroneous report of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).
The court passed directions while noting that the FSL had written to the police stating that the Chemical Analyser’s (CA) report of the material allegedly seized from the man was wrong and the same was not contraband as per the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The applicant had approached the high court after the trial court had rejected his bail plea in July, last year.
A single-judge bench of Justice Bharati H Dangre was hearing bail plea by a Nigerian national represented by advocates Ashwini Achari and Taraq Sayed, who said that the CA report of the FSL, Kalina had come negative for narcotics. Therefore, he should be released on bail.
The applicant was allegedly apprehended by Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Thane unit with cocaine, ecstasy tablets and he was arrested on October 23, 2020 under relevant provisions of NDPS Act and the samples of the contraband were sent to the FSL. The FSL initially gave a report stating that the same were narcotics covered under NDPS law and chargesheet was filed before the trial court.
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The official of FSL realised the typing mistake committed by him while issuing the February, 2021 report and he issued a corrigendum on August 4, this year, along with the report stating that the seized drugs did not fall under the NDPS Act.
The court granted bail to the applicant and also asked the state home department, which oversees the FSL, to find a way to compensate the applicant by Friday as the incarceration was unnecessary as the raid did not lead to recovery of any contraband covered under NDPS Act.
Failing which, the court said that it would determine the quantum of compensation on August 12.
