Malayalam actor Shine Tom Chacko and and four others who were arrested following a police raid on an apartment at Kadavanthra in Kochi, Kerala, in January 2015 on the charge of possessing cocaine were acquitted by a trial court on Tuesday (February 11, 2025).
The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Ernakulam, acquitted them citing how the prosecution was unable to prove the charges levelled against them under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. Maintaining that the prosecution could not prove the charges levelled against the accused persons, the court said there were lapses in the procedures that the police adopted while seizing the drug and in subsequent investigation. Neither were traces of cocaine detected in their blood samples.
The four others, models, were also arraigned as accused in the case. The case trial began in 2018.
In their plea, the prosecution had relied on, among others, digital evidence and a test report from the forensic lab. One among the arrested woman models had reportedly procured the cocaine from Goa.
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A Nigerian national who is said to have supplied 10 gm of cocaine to her had been arrested by the police.
Published - February 11, 2025 12:59 pm IST
