"No Iota Of Evidence": Calcutta High Court Quashes NDPS Case Against Man Accused Of 'Masterminding' Phensedyl Racket

The Calcutta High Court has quashed an NDPS prosecution against a Meerut resident accused of masterminding a large phensedyl trafficking operation, holding that the case against him was built solely on co-accused confessions that are “inadmissible” and unsupported by any independent material.Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta held that compelling the petitioner to face trial in the absence of even a shred of admissible evidence would amount to a “miscarriage of justice”.Examining the case diary, the Court recorded a categorical finding that the investigation had yielded nothing to link the petitioner with the seized contraband: “There is no iota of evidence collected during the investigation against the petitioner indicating his involvement, in any way, in the crime as alleged.” The Judge noted that although the prosecution alleged telephonic contact between the petitioner and the co-accused during transportation of the contraband, the police failed to produce any call records or ownership details of the mobile numbers allegedly used, nor any financial trail or material indicating his role.“The investigating officer failed to collect any evidence to connect the Petitioner to the crime...No evidence transpires from the case diary as regards any link with the petitioner and contraband goods recovered from the co-accused persons,” the court stated.The State had argued that the petitioner was the “mastermind” supplying phensedyl to a racket operating between Gangarampur and Balurghat. The Court rejected the claim outright: “The allegation… that he is the mastermind… is baseless when no iota of evidence transpired from the record against the petitioner.”The Court emphasised that the entire case against the petitioner rested on confessional statements of the co-accused made to the police—statements which were legally inadmissible.Referring to Tofan Singh v. State of Tamil Nadu and Karan Talwar v. State of Tamil Nadu, the Court reiterated: “The confessional statement made by the accused before the police during custody is inadmissible in law and cannot be the only basis for prosecution.”The Bench noted that there was no independent corroborating material, and therefore, the prosecution could not be allowed to proceed.Holding that the criminal proceeding was founded on no lawful material, the Court found that compelling the petitioner to face trial would serve no purpose: “It would be a miscarriage of justice to make the person concerned stand the trial because it would highly prejudice the petitioner, and all efforts would be futile as the conviction… would be rare and remote.”Accordingly, the Court allowed the criminal revision and quashed proceedings insofar as the petitioner was concerned.Case: Aasif Mohammad @ Asif Mohammad @ Asif @ Viki Versus The State of West BengalCase No: C.R.R. 4110 of 2022Click here to read order

"No Iota Of Evidence": Calcutta High Court Quashes NDPS Case Against Man Accused Of 'Masterminding' Phensedyl Racket

Srinjoy Das

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