KARACHI: Guidelines and procedures of the Supreme Court along with local and international protocols regarding safe custody of drugs recovered from the accused must be followed by police, said a model court on Monday while acquitting an accused due to faulty investigation of a drugs case.

Additional district and sessions’ judge Liaquat Ali Khoso of the model criminal trial court (Central) issued these directives in his judgement in a drugs case against accused Mohammad Sohail.

Judge Khoso pointed out faults in the investigation and declared the report regarding chemical analysis of 200 grams hashish recovered from his custody was faulty. He also noted that the prosecution failed “miserably” to prove the allegations against the accused and hence acquitted him.

According to the prosecution, Assistant Sub-Inspector Wajid Ali arrested Sohail near Darul Islam mosque in the F.B. Area on April 12, 2018 and recovered 200 grams of hashish and Rs150. The accused denied the allegations according to his statement, under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

During cross-examination, Inv­es­tigating Officer (IO) Inspector Mohammad Ayub deposed that he kept the confiscated drug at the police station and sent it to the chemical examiner for analysis, but did not keep documentary record of its entry. The IO further deposed that he had recorded statement of the in-charge of the maalkhana (warehouse) regarding safe custody of the seized hashish.

Judge Khoso pointed out that the chemical examiner’s report did not mention full protocols for testing of drugs, as provided under Section 36 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (CNS) Act, 1997 and Rule 6 of the Government Analysis Rules, 2001, which clearly states that the recovered sample should be sent to the chemical examiner for analysis and report be obtained within 72 hours of its recovery.

He further wrote that the prosecution failed to prove the safe custody and safe transmission of the recovered drugs from place of incident to the police station, placing it in the maalkhana and taking it out from there and to the chemical examiner.

Judge Khoso declared the recovery and chemical analysis report as doubtful and acquitted the accused of the charges.

However, the judge directed the SSP concerned to issue directions to all those police officers assigned cases under CNS Act, 1997 to comply with the directions, guidelines and procedure provided by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in such cases which are referred to in the judgement.

The SSP was further directed to liaise with the director of laboratories and the chemical examiner of the Sindh government to comply with the full protocols, as provided in Section 36 of CNS Act, 1997 and its relevant rules by mentioning the test protocols duly guided by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Laboratories Test Protocols 1998 with immediate effect so that the cases under CNS 1997 may not result in failure.

“In case of failure in future cases, the police officers shall expose themselves to be dealt strictly in accordance with law,” the judge warned.

The court also directed the SSP to sensitise the police officials about the safe transmission, safe custody and safe transfer of drugs recovered from the place of incident.

A case under Sections 6 and 9(b) of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 was registered at the Gulberg police station.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2019