Malaysian acquitted after 4 years in jail in NDPS case

CHENNAI: A Malaysian national who spent over four years in jail for allegedly ordering MDMA pills (ecstasy) from Germany was acquitted by a special court for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act cases on Monday after the customs failed to prove the charges.

S Kavikumar, then 25-year-old, was arrested by Customs in June 2020 after the parcel received in his name at the foreign post office contained MDMA Pills.

“There were 100 tablets in the parcel, of which 95 were yellow in colour and had a skull mark. The remaining five tablets were light pink in colour and were marked CNN,” according to the prosecution. The tablets tested positive for MDMA after which customs officials traced the receiver’s address to Erode.

After inspection at the Erode address, the Customs officials learned that Kavikumar was living at Koramangala in Bengaluru, and was pursuing a business administration course at a prominent university there. Kavikumar’s counsel pointed out technical discrepancies in the prosecution case and also pointed out that the witnesses used in the case were stock witnesses that the Customs Department used in several cases.

After perusing the submissions, the court noted that the prosecution had failed to produce the mobile phone surrendered by the accused before the court. “No initiative was taken to collate the details in the mobile phone by sending the same to the forensic department. As per the case of the prosecution, the accused alleged to have contacted Yaspal, his erstwhile friend, who is residing in England currently, and Sydney is said to be the person who would come to collect the same from the accused. No further probe was conducted in this regard,” the court observed. Though the prosecution obtained the call details records of the accused, they failed to mark the same in accordance with the procedures contemplated in law.

On the prosecution’s claim that Kavikumar had transferred money to Yaspal on four or five occasions, the court pointed out that sending money to a person is not sufficient enough to prove the purchase of contraband from the said person in the UK.

“No iota of evidence except the ocular testimony of the customs official was produced and the mandatory requirements are not complied with. Alleged contraband was never delivered to the accused. The infirmities in the case of the prosecution should go in favour of the accused,” observed S Hermies, the special court judge, and acquitted Kavikumar.