JHANG: Fifty per cent of drugs cases challaned by Jhang police and sent to the various model courts during the last two years have proved false and fabricated after their trials, resulting in acquittal of the accused.

According to statistics gathered by Dawn through a survey in the courts, 856 cases were registered with the police stations of the district under various sections of the Drugs Act and challans were filed in 282 cases. During trials, the courts found 140 cases as false or lacking evidence and acquitted the accused.

Some senior lawyers engaged by the accused and police, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn this state of affairs could be attributed to three major reasons, namely registration of false cases based on fabricated stories, fake recoveries and entries by police and implication of innocent citizens by them to show their performance to their seniors. When these cases were brought up for trial before the court, police miserably failed to provide evidences and proofs. The lawyers said that although the innocent were acquitted but no compensation was paid to them by any agency while no police official had been taken to the task for indulging in such a nefarious activity.

They alleged that the police after arresting genuine drug dealers and paddlers would weaken the prosecution by writing ambiguous case diaries in favour of the accused after taking bribe. Due to the weak cases, the court was left with no option but to acquit the accused, they added.

There was also allegation by the lawyers that the police would not only embezzle the huge quantity of recovered drugs, amounting to millions of rupees but also adulterate the recovered drugs by using items such as talcum powder and black soap to remove the evidence that might be proved from the laboratory.

When contacted for the police version, a department source said that they had left no stone unturned in investigation of the cases but the accused were acquitted by the courts due to weak prosecution and the police department was not responsible for that.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2019