IGP-rank officer to probe collapse of Ratnagiri cocaine seizure case: Deshmukh

The police laid a trap and caught three men inside an abandoned building and claimed to have found a white plastic bag containing 936 grams of cocaine valued at Rs 50 lakh. The arrested men were identified asone Din-esh Shubhe Singh (23), Sunil Kumar Ranava (25), an Indian Coast Guard sailor, and Ramchandra Malik (51), an Indian Coast Guard Quality Assurance Officer.

However, the case began to collapse after the State Forensic Science Laboratory in Kolhapur found that samples of the contraband seized by the police had tested negative for cocaine and positive for urea, which is commonly used as a fertiliser.

The police sought and received permission from a local court to have the contraband re-tested at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Chandigarh. But last month, the CFSL also found that the police’s samples had tested negative for cocaine.

Pravin Mundhe, Ratnagiri Superintendent of Police, said the police would not file a chargesheet in the case as there is no offence to prosecute the three men under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. “We will soon decide how to proceed further,” Mundhe said.

Replying to questions by a group of legislators on the steps taken to curb the easy availability of drugs and seeking an update on the Ratnagiri police’s investigation, Deshmukh said that an IGP rank officer would thoroughly inquire into the facts of the case and submit a report to the government after ascertaining what had gone wrong in the probe.