Man arrested in Rs 2-crore drugs case brought after 24 hours, court frees him

Mumbai: Observing that he wasn’t produced before it within 24 hours of his interception as mandated by the law, a special NDPS court on Wednesday held as illegal the arrest of a suspect in a Rs 2-crore hashish seizure case and ordered his immediate release.It noted that his liberty had been curtailed from the time he was intercepted at his residence in Bhoiwada, Dadar, on Tuesday morning.The customs’ special intelligence and investigation branch (SIIB) intercepted a package meant for delivery and found around 1.6kg of hashish concealed in plastic-wrapped soap boxes. It decided to lay a trap at the Dadar residence mentioned on the package. But when the postman arrived at the location, no one was around to receive it.

Neighbours said the house had been locked for years. The postman called up the number provided on the package but couldn’t get through to the right recipient.

The next day, the post office informed customs officials that one Shahrukh Shaikh had tried to claim the package by submitting his Aadhaar card, but there were name and address mismatches. The consignment was in the name of one Hitendra Jain.SIIB officials took Shaikh into custody and recorded his statement.

He claimed a friend from Thailand had asked him to pick up the package.Shaikh, who was booked under NDPS Act, was produced in court on Wednesday. Special public prosecutor R K Pathak sought his judicial custody. Shaikh’s lawyer, Arun Gupta, opposed it, saying he was formally arrested nearly 12 hours after being intercepted at his residence in the morning and was not produced before the court within 24 hours of interception, thereby violating Section 58 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.Rejecting the prosecution’s explanation that Shaikh was interrogated and medically examined during the intervening period, the court held that such reasons could not be excluded while calculating the 24-hour period. “It was for the prosecution/SIIB to produce the accused within 24 hours from his initial interception at 9.20am or at the most, from the time while leaving the house of the accused, that is, 10.30am,” it said.Additional chief metropolitan magistrate S K Fokmare noted that there was nothing on record to show that the investigating agency required any journey time to be excluded while computing the statutory period. “From the face of record, it seems that the accused was produced before the court after 24 hours of his interception. Thus, the arrest of the accused is illegal and, hence, [the investigating officer] is directed to release him forthwith,” the order said.