Two acquitted in hashish case as police fail to produce video evidence, witnesses

A Malir court has acquitted two men for lack of evidence in a case pertaining to possession of over one kilogramme of hashish.

On February 19, the Sohrab Goth police had arrested Saddam Hussain after charas weighing 1,210 grams was allegedly recovered from his possession in Jannat Gul Town, according to the prosecution. His co-accused Abdul Majeed managed to flee the scene while throwing eight small pieces of charas weighing a total of 130 grams, it said.

Additional Sessions Judge Liaqat Ali Khoso, who is also the presiding officer of the Special Court (Control of Narcotics Control) Malir, exonerated both accused from all the charges under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

Section 265-K empowers a judge to acquit an accused at any stage if he considers that there is no possibility of conviction of the accused. "There is no impediment upon the court to exercise powers under section 265-K CrPC when Court is all of opinion that the prosecution case against the accused could not be proved or there is no likelihood of conviction of accused," the judge said.

He ordered jail authorities to release Saddam, who is in custody, forthwith if he was not required in any other case, while Majeed was an absconder. In his written order, the judge noted that no witnesses had appeared since the framing of charges against the accused despite the use of coercive measures.

"All the witnesses and complainant are police officials but they have not bothered to attend the court even for a single date, which presumes that they have nothing to say against accused," he said.

Highlighting lacunas in the prosecution's case, the judge noted that as per the record, the complainant had not fully described drugs recovered from the accused, adding that he had also not disclosed the net and gross weight of recovered drugs as well as the color of drugs.

The judge said that safe custody of the case property was compromised as there was no mention of entry of registers in the charge-sheet, nor was the chemical report available on record to show full test protocols.

The judge pointed out that as per provision of Section 17 of the Sindh Control of Narcotics Act, 2024, the raiding party should take photographs and also make video recording of drugs recovery.

"The entire file of the prosecution is silent as to whether the police officials have taken any photographs or made any video recording. The FIR and memo of arrest does not show that the requirement of video recording was complied with or not. The IO has also not mentioned about such of recording video and taking photographs," he said.

"The mandatory requirement of law is not complied with as on the date of incident the provisions of Section 17 of the Sindh Control of Narcotics Act, 2024 were in operation. In addition to this the prosecution witnesses despite of being police officials have failed to produce such evidence against accused."

The judge further observed that it was the right of accused that he should be dealt with in accordance with the law as such right of accused was protected under the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973.

"In such circumstances, prosecution would not be able to prove the charge against accused," he said. "Even if prosecution witnesses appear before the court, there is no likelihood of accused to be convicted. From the above stated position I am of the humble view that the charge against accused is groundless and accused would not be liable to be convicted," he ruled.