Senior citizen acquitted in drug seizure case

Mumbai, Feb 26 (UNI) A Sessions Court here has acquitted a senior citizen, who was allegedly found in the possession of over 65-kg of 'ganja', for lack of evidence.

Additional Sessions Judge S B Dhatrakht, while acquitting Jairam Dharmakounder yesterday, noted that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the accused.

According to the prosecution, on March 15, last year, sleuths of the narcotics department of Mumbai Police had seized 3-kg of the drug from Jairam, who is in his mid-60s. His interrogation and a subsequent search later yielded 62.5-kg of ganja from a shop at Pratiksha Nagar in Sion here.

The court examined five witnesses but their deposition was not acceptable to the court.

Defence advocate Anand Jondhale contended before the court that his client was falsely implicated in the case by the police. He also claimed that the drug recovery was not genuine.

The defence also termed the chemical analysis report as incomplete since it did not contain the entire description of the alleged recovered material.

Public Prosecutor Deepak Lade said that the police had recovered these substances in presence of the witnesses and completed entire mandatory procedure required under the law.

UNI XR-ARM RSY CS BS1251