Two persons, Henna Shah, the granddaughter of legendary Bollywood music composer, Anandji of the Kalyanji-Anandji duo, and Shahid Chaudhary, were acquitted by the Thane Sessions Court bench of Judge HM Patwardhan on Friday. The two were arrested by Thane Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) under the NDPC Act for possession of MD in 2015.
The acquittal came after many discrepancies in the investigation. The ANC team had shown both the parties were arrested from Thane but CDR location of an investigation officer was shown in Byculla. The witnesses were hostile and one of them gave contradictory statements in the case that are some grounds of acquittal.
The case was registered on July 29, 2015, when the Thane ANC police received a tip off that Shah (then 21) and Chaudhary (30) possessed drugs and were arriving near Viviana Mall in Thane at midnight. Police found 430g of white crystalline powder alleged to be Mephedrone from Shah and 100g of the same drug from Chaudhary. The case was registered at Vartak Nagar police station.
Shah’s lawyer, Shekhar S Bhandary, argued, “Our main point was they were not arrested in Thane but in Byculla. I took the CDR of officials too that showed that at the time of the arrest, he was in Byculla and not near Viviana Mall. On the same ground, we got bail in the High Court in 2017. Later on, two witnesses of police went hostile and the third witness told the court that she did not recollect what the police had done with the powder and she also contradicted her statement that sampling, packing and sealing of Panchnama took place in Thane.”
The court observed that there was a violation of Sections 42, 50, and 57 of the NDPS Act related to investigation of the case. Therefore, the Thane Sessions Court acquitted both applicants in the case.
ANC officials were not reachable for comment.