Reporter’s diary: Judge comes down heavily on cop for ‘working hand in glove with ganja peddler’

This usually turns out to be an advantage to the accused who walks away scot-free.

In one such instance that came up before the Madras High Court, a judge was forced to grant bail to an accused nabbed with ganja owing to disputed facts arising in the report filed by the police.

As per the case, one Muthuveeran of Theni District was arrested in February last near Katpadi Railway Station with two bags of ganja, totaling 44 kg. Thereafter, he moved a plea seeking bail claiming that in the FIR and remand report by Inspector Shanti, who probed the case, had mentioned the seizure of two bags and the ganja seized weighed 44 kg. But in other reports, the seizure had trickled down to just a bag and hence the probe was not done in the right way.

Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan, who heard the bail plea, sought for the reports and finding a gross mismatch of the seizure held that the probe report was utterly unreliable and that there remained no choice but to grant the accused conditional bail. However, the judge came down heavily on the inspector for such a shoddy probe.