The Chhattisgarh High Court has acquitted five men previously sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for trafficking over 833 kilograms of cannabis, citing severe investigative lapses by federal narcotics officers and the escape of the prime suspect from custody.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal overturned the convictions on July 1, pointing to systematic failures by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to follow mandatory legal safeguards. The court ordered the DRI’s Director General in New Delhi to launch a departmental inquiry into the supervising officers and investigate how the principal accused managed to escape DRI custody.
The ruling sets aside judgments issued by the Special NDPS Court in Raipur on July 25, 2024, and November 17, 2025. Those trial court decisions had sentenced the five individuals to rigorous imprisonment terms of up to 15 years. The appellants included four men arrested during an October 2021 operation and the owner of the involved truck, who was arrested in February 2025 and convicted later that year.
Procedural Deficiencies and Investigation Lapses
The prosecution’s case originated from an interception on October 3, 2021, at the Tourenga Forest Check Post in Gariyaband. DRI officers claimed they stopped a truck carrying 833.271 kilograms of ganja hidden beneath bags of puffed rice. According to the agency, the truck, which was bound for Mathura in Uttar Pradesh from Andhra Pradesh, was escorted by an XUV carrying the other suspects.
However, the High Court determined that the DRI failed to prove its allegations beyond a reasonable doubt due to fundamental errors in how the evidence was handled. The judges noted that officers did not prepare a seizure memo, spot map, panchnama, or any other official records at the forest check post where the vehicle was intercepted. Instead, investigators drove the truck roughly 160 kilometers away to the DRI office in Raipur before beginning the search and seizure proceedings.
The bench observed that conducting the entire search at a distant, secondary location severely compromised the credibility of the seizure and introduced the possibility of evidence tampering during transit.
Furthermore, the court identified extensive violations of Sections 42, 52-A, and 57 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. These statutory provisions require officers to record and share initial intelligence, draw representative samples of seized drugs under a magistrate’s certification, and quickly report seizures to superior officers. The court ruled that failing to follow these guidelines broke the chain of custody and cast severe doubt on the validity of the official documentation.
Custody Escape and Institutional Reforms Ordered
The High Court expressed deep concern over the escape of the primary suspect directly from DRI premises, stating that such an incident during a commercial-scale drug investigation demonstrated a total failure of supervision, vigilance, and institutional discipline.
The bench directed the high court registry to send a copy of the ruling immediately to the DRI Director General. The agency chief must organize a comprehensive inquiry to identify the officers responsible for the faulty investigation and the suspect’s escape, fix accountability, and initiate legal action.
Additionally, the court instructed the DRI chief to reinforce supervisory controls and conduct regular training programs to ensure that future narcotics investigations comply strictly with statutory standards.
