With Narcotics Control Bureau busy unravelling the ‘drug syndicate’ in Bollywood, it appears other important cases have been sidelined.
Recently, a suspect allegedly caught with ‘commercial quantities of drugs’ was granted bail as the NCB missed the deadline to file chargesheet in the case!
As per TOI and Times Now reports, the suspect, Andheri-based Shivam Piyush Hindia, was arrested in March on charges of smuggling banned narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances from abroad.
Acting on a tip-off, NCB had intercepted a few parcels and stumbled upon 8 airway bills using which contraband was allegedly sent to the UK, Singapore, Ireland and US.
They had seized large quantities of contraband including thousands of tablets. A stash was also allegedly found at his residence at Andheri.
The agency had booked him for 4 different offences under the NDPS Act which attract bail restrictions. 3 courier packets addressed to different parties abroad were seized and hence the prosecution had to register 3 different cases and a 4th after they found something incriminating from his residence.
However,NCB failed to chargesheet him within the required time period of 180 days!
The suspect’s advocate took a dig at NCB, saying they were perhaps ‘busy with the celebrity case’!
“Perhaps the two NCB prosecutors were very busy with the celebrity case. There were too many lacunas in the charge sheets they filed at the last minute, which got exposed before the court and hence the same were not allowed,” said Hindia’s advocate Ayaz Khan.
Advocate Khan said NCB missed the deadline of 180 days for 3 of the cases last week. Their only chance was on Saturday, which was the last day for filing the chargesheet, but before the agency could file their say, Khan had already filed his bail application on technical grounds and it was accepted!
On Saturday, NCB had interrogated celebrities like Shraddha Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Sara Ali Khan.
Despite being booked for major offences, punishable by a jail term of minimum 10 years, Shivam was granted conditional cash bail of Rs one lakh by the special NDPS court on Saturday.
SB Gaurav, the court judge, directed Shivam to furnish residential proof and a copy of his passport within four weeks of his release. He also directed that Shivam should not leave the country without informing the court and visit the NCB office as and when required.