PANAJI
The tale of missing drugs has come back to haunt the Goa Police, 12 years after 200 kg hashish “disappeared” from the warehouse at police headquarters. This time, however, the scene shifts from Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) to Mapusa police station.
The Goan has reliably learnt that ganja, seized from one Isak Nadaf in 2014, is not traceable at the police station’s evidence room and at the Court’s malkhana while the trial before Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Mapusa is already halfway.
Although not a commercial quantum, the seized contraband's alleged disappearance is certain to bring the department under scrutiny, yet again. The Investigation Officer, a police sub-inspector, has reportedly passed the buck to a head constable with the judicial magistrate time and again demanding to produce the muddemal property to record evidence.
“The entire police station is on its toes searching for the ‘envelop’ which contained the seized drugs. A search of the malkhana (Court) is also being carried out by their concerned officials along with the police,” the source said as The Goan has been tracking the matter for around a fortnight.
The matter pertains to the seizure of Ganja from Nadaf during a raid at Gandhi Chouk in Mapusa on May 23, 2014. The alleged peddler, residing in Ektanagar Housing Board, was arrested and eventually charge-sheeted under Section 20 (b) (ii) (A) of the NDPS Act. The case had two IOs owing to the previous officer Sadashiv Hunashikatti's transfer.
"Prior to the charge sheet in 2015, the IO had sent the drugs for forensic examination in July 2014. A month later, the Forensic Science Laboratory returns the property with a report confirming Ganja. The new IO has claimed on record receiving the property from the experts," the source revealed. The registers that could reveal the truth are also being searched.
The PSI, sources said, has shunned his responsibility as the head constable being issued notices from the Civil Judge (Junior Division) and JMFC for a reply.
"...IO filed application intimating that The MO is not in his custody and is not misplaced due to his fault and he has handed it over to the HC Writer...Hence issue notice to HC..." the JMFC recorded during the ongoing trial last month.
When the matter came up for further hearing over a week ago during which a court witness expressed his inability to depose, the JMFC directed issuing fresh summons to the former and a fresh notice to the HC. The trial is adjourned to November 8, 2022.
