NCB can re-test contraband, rules high court

Holding that public interest will be defeated if the police is denied a second chance to test a seized drug, the Bombay high court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by Canadian national Manpreet Bal, 35, who had sought the quashing of a complaint against him under the Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. Bal, who was arrested in September 2008 and granted bail in November that year, was accused of smuggling 100kg of ephedrine, a controlled substance used in the manufacture of various narcotic substances, to Mexico. Bal, prohibited from leaving India, had contended that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) that arrested him had no power under the law to test the seized contraband again when it had already tested negative once. The court, however, said the NCB was set up to curb the “menace caused by free availability of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances,” and if the judicial proceedings were closed on the grounds that the agency cannot test the contraband for the second time of its own accord, “public interest will be affected”.The court was of the view that the validity of the second report of the CFSL, Hyderabad, issued on November 28, 2008 stated that all the samples of the seized contraband contained ephedrine, will be determined at the stage of trial.