HC grants bail to Ugandan national after four years of custody in drugs case | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has granted bail to a Ugandan national who was arrested at the Mumbai airport in 2022 after allegedly swallowing 91 capsules containing over 1kg of narcotics, holding that his detention for more than four years without any progress in the trial had become punitive.

The Bombay High Court has granted bail to a Ugandan national who was arrested at the Mumbai airport in 2022 after allegedly swallowing 91 capsules containing over 1kg of narcotics.A single-judge bench of justice Shyam C Chandak said that the accused’s conditional liberty must take precedence over the stringent bail restrictions under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, despite there being a prima facie case against him.

“The applicant is in jail for more than four years. The trial against him has not advanced. In the absence of such advancement, his detention in jail is turning punitive,” the court said, while granting bail to the accused, Isma Opaka Wandera. It added that prolonged detention made the presumption of innocence meaningless and undermined Wandera’s right to life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.

On July 17, 2022, officers of the Air Intelligence Unit at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport intercepted Wandera after receiving information that he might have ingested drugs. While nothing suspicious was found in his luggage, Wandera allegedly admitted during questioning that he had swallowed capsules containing narcotics and complained of severe stomach pain, the prosecution said.

Wandera was then taken to Sir JJ Hospital, where he expelled 91 oval-shaped capsules over three days. The powder recovered from the capsules weighed 1,101.8 grams, including a 12-gram pouch, according to the prosecution.

Initial field tests indicated the capsules contained methaqualone, a hypnotic drug. However, a subsequent laboratory test report found no methaqualone but detected cocaine, heroin, codeine, morphine and caffeine. Wandera was arrested on July 20, 2022, and charged under the NDPS Act.

His lawyer, advocate Pranay Saraf, challenged the sampling and seizure, arguing that the contents of all capsules were combined without separate samples being drawn from each. The defence also highlighted the conflicting test results and a delay in sending the sample for inventory proceedings.

The high court noted that the contents had been mixed before a sample was drawn, raising questions about compliance with prescribed sampling standards. It also noted a 50-day delay in sending the seized substance for inventory-related proceedings.

However, the court left the alleged lapses to be determined at trial, giving the prosecution an opportunity to explain why the prescribed steps were not followed and whether this prejudiced the accused.

The court also found that the personal-search notice did not properly inform Wandera of his right to be searched in the presence of a gazetted officer or magistrate, stating only that the search would be conducted in their presence “if you so require”. Whether this amounted to non-compliance, it said, was a matter for trial, given the circumstances of his medical emergency and transfer to the hospital.