The High Court of Karnataka has suggested that a separate Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) be set up for conducting tests for narcotic drugs and contraband articles under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The court directed the special public prosecutor (SPP) to persuade the Home department to provide field test kits to all the police stations in Karnataka.
Justice K Natarajan passed this order while dismissing a petition filed by Arjav Deepak Mehta, an accused in a case under the NDPS Act. Besides the other contentions, the senior counsel appearing for the petitioner pointed out that the police officials attached to Jeevan Bima Nagar police station had not done field test in respect of the contraband.
He also said that as per the guidelines issued by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), samples of the seized articles shall be sent for chemical analysis within 72 hours and the report shall be obtained within 15 days. In the case on hand, though the sample was sent, the report has not been received.
The court dismissed the petition observing that the petitioner was found in possession of 3.95 grams of LSD strips, while 0.5 grams is the commercial quantity. “Such being the case, the contraband article is more than the commercial quantity and the investigation is still pending. Therefore, the petitioner is not entitled for bail,” the order said.
Meanwhile, the court said that the guidelines are directory in nature and are not binding on the FSL. The court also said that it is not possible for the FSL to give a report within 15 days since there is only one FSL in Bengaluru for the entire state of Karnataka.
The court asked the SPP to persuade the government to have a separate FSL for narcotic cases. “He shall persuade the government to establish a separate Forensic Science Laboratory for conducting tests for Narcotic Drugs and contraband articles under the NDPS Act,” the court said.
Published 02 April 2021, 17:02 IST