Mumbai: A special NDPS court recently rejected a plea by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch to retest drug samples in a major narcotics case after the initial forensic report returned negative for contraband.“Merely because, result is not favourable, cannot be a ground to send the samples for re-testing. On the contrary, in all other cases, prosecution is placing reliance on the reports submitted by FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory), Kalina,” special judge Arvind M Bhandarwar said. The judge pointed out that “no allegations or adverse submissions” were made against FSL, Kalina by the prosecution to justify its stand.
The judge further noted that while a plea for re-testing can be made within a fortnight after a negative report is received, the prosecution had no mention of any exceptional circumstances.He also said that the FSL report had not revealed any inability to analyse the sample for want of necessary equipment nor suggested that the sample be sent to the central FSL for a review. Given this position, the judge said, “it was the duty of prosecution to make out exceptional ground for re-testing,” the judge said. In a July 2025 raid by the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) in Andheri, officials claimed to have seized over 1.1 lakh tablets of Tramadol, a regulated opioid, valued at approximately Rs 2.22 crore from Dindoshi resident Pradeep Upadhyay. Subsequently several accused including city residents, Bhavesh Shah, Sukant Dole, Rohan Avasare, Rajesh Pawar, Saikrishna Lagishetti and Mohammed Momin were arrested for allegedly trafficking, concealing, and exporting narcotics using winding machines and courier services. Another accused, a Haryana native named Kashmir Sadar alias Dahiya was also arrested based on information from other accused.However, a report from the FSL in Kalina, received on Dec 30, 2025, found no traces of Tramadol in the seized samples, detecting only a non-narcotic artifact. Therefore, permission was sought by the Anti-Narcotics Cell, Azad Maidan Unit, Crime Branch, Mumbai to send the sample of seized narcotic drugs for re-analysis to the Director, Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad, Telangana. The state argued that the negative result made the “correctness of analysis doubtful.“Defense advocates, including Pranay Saraf, opposed the move, arguing that Kalina FSL is the standard authority for almost all narcotics trials in Maharashtra. They contended that the prosecution routinely relies on this laboratory’s credibility to secure convictions and cannot suddenly brand it unreliable when a report favours the accused.Relying on the landmark Thana Singh precedent, the judge noted that the NDPS Act does not inherently permit re-sampling and that such requests can only be granted in “extremely exceptional circumstances” for “cogent reasons.”“It is further noted that, under the NDPS Act, re-testing and re-sampling is rampant at every stage of the trial contrary to other legislations which define a specific time-frame within which the right may be available…. in the absence of any compelling circumstances, any form of re-testing/re-sampling is strictly prohibited under the NDPS Act,” the judge iterated.
