In Brief
On 17 July 1998, police apprehended the respondent with 2,700 pouches of country-made liquor in 18 plastic bags and 300 grams of charas. The trial court convicted him under the N.D.P.S. Act and Excise Act. The High Court acquitted him, noting that samples were delayed in reaching the laboratory (36 days) and no evidence showed how the contraband was preserved. The Supreme Court dismissed the state's appeal, holding the High Court's acquittal was not perverse. The prosecution failed to prove the chain of custody despite the investigating officer's death not preventing examination of other associated witnesses."
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