Court asks police chief to probe NCB officer

Special NDPS Judge Anu Grover Baliga acquitted the woman, who was being tried for attempting to courier a parcel containing 450 gram of heroine, after noting that NCB had failed to prove the case against her.

However, the court also took into consideration the allegation raised by the woman, who during the course of the trial told the court that she worked as a call girl, and NCB officer Akhilesh Kumar Mishra had threatened to "teach her a lesson" after she objected to him "not paying her for her services".

The court took note of the allegations raised by the woman, observing that, "She has also stated that the said official made her sign and write many documents and threatened her that if she does not do he told her, he will plant a huge quantity of drugs or narcotic substance on her person and get her arrested. She has also informed this court that she had not told her advocate the real reason of her arrest because she was ashamed of what she used to do to earn her livelihood."

The court also took note of the testimony of prosecution witness Rakesh Kumar, who, according to the prosecution, was a FedEx employee who had booked the parcel "At the instance of some NCB officials".

Holding that "this court is absolutely convinced that the airway bills and the invoices are not in the handwriting of PW11 Rakesh Kumar who as per the case of the prosecution had booked the parcel in question", the court has directed an inquiry into the conduct of police official Akhilesh Kumar Mishra "in view of the serious allegations raised against him by the accused and in view of the material that has come on record before this court".

"It is the bounden duty of this court to get the allegations made by the accused inquired into.If the handwriting .....is found to be that of Akhilesh Mishra or it is found that the said documents were got filled at his instance, then the obvious and shocking inference that will have to be necessarily made is that not only officials of NCB but other officials who were also on deputation in NCB like Akhilesh Mishra colluded with him to falsely implicate the accused and infringed upon her constitutional right to liberty by blatantly misusing their official position," the court said.

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