Even after 180 days of arrest with ganja, police failed to file chargesheet, angry Justice directed DGP to take legal action against IO
By Our Correspondent
Agartala, Updated: July 25, 2024, 05:57:30 PM
Even after 180 days of arresting the ganja-loaded car and the driver, the police could not file a charge sheet. As a result, all the ganja smugglers got bail one by one. Angered by the unethical behavior of the Churaibari police in filing charge sheets in cases of serious crimes like drug trafficking, Hon'ble Justice Arindam Lodh of Tripura High Court today directed the DGP to take legal action against the guilty investigating officer.
It is learned that High Court Justice Arindam Lodh summoned the police officer investigating the case to the court today. And the judge himself wanted to know in open court why there was such a delay in the filing of chargesheets by the police in cases of serious offenses like ganja smuggling. It is learned that what the investigating police officer said in response to the judge's questioning in the court is even more serious.
It is learned that the police officer told Justice Arindam Lodh that he had sent a supervision report to District SP Bhanupada Chakraborty and sought time to file the charge sheet. But the authority did not respond to the report of the investigating police officer. Hence the investigating police officer could not file the chargesheet within 180 days and as a result of the default bail procedure the ganja smugglers got bail from special NDPS court of Darmanagar on 22 July .
It is learned that after receiving the reply of the investigating police officer, the High Court judge granted the plea for withdrawal of the bail petition of accused Mohidul Islam field by Subrata Sarkar, the senior lawyer of the accused, to withdraw the case for natural reasons as his client has already got bail from special NDPS court at Darmanagar.
Notably, many people have been arrested in Tripura's Churaibari Gate for the past several years in cases filed for smuggling ganja and various types of drugs. A large quantity of drugs including ganja was seized in Churaibari, but none of the criminals were punished. At times there are also allegations that the police are negotiating the release of these traffickers. And the doubt in the minds of the common people has been clarified today by the order of Hon'ble Justice Arindam Lodh of Tripura High Court.
It is learned that High Court Justice Shri Lodh said in his judgment that' "In the instant case, I find that the accused has been granted default bail due to non-furnishing of charge-sheet before completion of 180 days. The accused had been arrested for allegedly committing serious offence under NDPS Act. The Investigating officer must have to be vigilant and should act with enough diligence expected from an Investigating Officer. In the instant case, there is reasonable ground to believe that the Investigating Officer was all along negligent in not submitting the charge-sheet on time, or even he had failed to submit charge-sheet in part. As such, necessary action may be taken against the concerned Investigating Officer of this case so that there may not be any repetition of such type of acts and commission, as is found in this case.However, the instant application is allowed to be withdrawn and thus, disposed of as withdrawn.A copy of this order be forwarded to the Superintendent of Police of the concerned District as well as to the DGP, Government of Tripura."
(Tripurainfo)