Court frees five in 833 kg ganja case, says main accused escaped from DRI custody
The Chhattisgarh High Court recently acquitted five men in a case involving the seizure of 833 kilograms of ganja, strongly criticising the investigation conducted by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). The court described the probe as marked by “casualness and indifference” and noted that the prime accused had escaped from DRI custody.
A division bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal allowed the appeals filed by the five accused against their conviction by a special NDPS court in Raipur. They had been sentenced to up to 15 years of rigorous imprisonment under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
“The record reveals not merely procedural irregularities but a systematic disregard of the mandatory safeguards incorporated under the NDPS Act… These are not mere technical defects but violations of statutory safeguards repeatedly held by the Supreme Court to be mandatory in nature,” the court observed on July 1.
The court expressed shock that the main accused had escaped from DRI custody. “If an accused allegedly involved in the trafficking of a commercial quantity of narcotic drugs can escape from the premises of the investigating agency, it reflects a complete collapse of vigilance, supervision and institutional discipline within the agency,” it stated.
The case originated from a DRI operation on October 3, 2021, when officials claimed to have intercepted a truck carrying 833.271 kg of ganja concealed under sacks of puffed rice. The truck was travelling from Andhra Pradesh to Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly escorted by another vehicle carrying other accused persons. Four accused were convicted in July 2024, and the truck owner was convicted separately in November 2025 after his arrest.
The high court held that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt due to fundamental defects in the investigation, including failures in search, seizure, sampling, and preservation of evidence. The bench noted that although the truck was allegedly intercepted at the Tourenga Forest Check Post in Gariyaband, no contemporaneous records such as a panchnama or seizure memo were prepared at that spot. Instead, the truck was taken nearly 160 kilometres to the DRI office in Raipur, where the seizure proceedings were conducted. The court said this cast doubt on the sanctity of the recovery and raised the possibility of manipulation.
The investigation suffered from “glaring lapses at every material stage,” including non-compliance with Sections 42, 52-A, and 57 of the NDPS Act, serious deficiencies in sampling and sealing, failure to preserve the chain of custody, and preparation of documents that appeared to be afterthoughts. The court ordered a departmental inquiry into the conduct of the DRI officers involved.
