PANJIM: The North Goa Additional Sessions Court, Mapusa discharged alleged drug dealer David Driham alias Dudu, an Israeli national for the offences punishable under relevant sections of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and ordered to frame charges against seven other accused including the then DySP Naresh Mhamal and PSI Sunil Gudlar.
It ordered charges to be framed against them for offences punishable under Section 120 B read with 24, read with Section 192, read with 195, 203, 211, 506 (ii) of IPC and substantive offences under Section 195 of IPC for making false statements against Dudu and also under sections of the NDPS Act.
Dudu was discharged following a supplementary chargesheet filed by CBI, who stated that a false case was registered against Dudu and there was no sufficient material to frame charges against him. The CBI probe revealed that Dudu who was accused number 1 was threatened and a false case was made against him. The possession of illegal contraband was not found in Dudu’s possession but on the contrary it was seen prima facie to be implanted on Dudu.
Therefore there was ample material before the court to frame charges against the seven accused, all police personnel for offences punishable under Section 20 (B) (ii) (c), 21 (a) (b) and 22 (c) of the NDPS Act.
The case was handed over to the CBI as per the directives of the High Court of Bombay of Goa.
Earlier, the Goa Police had filed chargesheet against Dudu after he was caught red-handed on the night of February 21, 2010, at Anjuna for illegally possessing 4.4799 grammes of heroin, cocaine weighing 5.3420 gms and liquid LSD weighing 1.165 kg, all valued approximately at Rs 2,71,500. The police had recovered cash of Rs 5,000 from him.
After a chargesheet was filed against Dudu, an order dated June 21, 2021 was passed ordering framing of charges against him, for offences punishable under sections of NDPS Act, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) writ petition filed by Sunil Kawthankar before the High Court, praying that the investigations be handed over to the CBI.
Accordingly, the government handed over the case to the CBI after High Court observed that there is general concern and equally the court is anxious that if there is any nexus as prima facie indicated between the drug dealers, the drug peddlers and the Goa Police, then it must be investigated thoroughly by the CBI.
The CBI later investigated the case and filed a supplementary chargesheet which revealed that a false case was filed against Dudu. The CBI sought closure of the earlier case filed by the police on the ground that investigation revealed that the then investigating officer Sunil Gudlar and others had filed a false case against Dudu and accordingly, PSI Gudlar and six others were named as accused in the supplementary chargesheet.
Besides DySP Mhamal (now retired) and PSI Gudlar, the other police personnel against whom charges have been framed are Euarmia Guraya, Mahadev Naik, Mahabaleshwar Sawant, Nagesh Parsekar and Sameer Varkhandkar, who were found to be deceptive in their statements. The CBI chargesheet states that PSI Gudlar along with other accused hatched a criminal conspiracy and in furtherance of a common intention to extort money, they fabricated a false case against Dudu.
Adv Raju Poulekar and Jagdish Toraskar represented Dudu.
