“They are always adulterated or cut with other substances or put in a gelatin or blotter paper, as in the present case,” said the HC. It is also pertinent to note that illicit drugs are seldom sold in a pure form. The HC said, as noted by the SC, it was never the intention of the legislature to exclude the quantity of the neutral substance and to consider only the actual content by weight of the offending drug.
The agency’s special counsel ASG Anil Singh and counsel Advait Sethna with Shreeram Shirsat cited the recent Supreme Court ruling in Hira Singh’s case arguing that it required weight of drugs sold on street to include any ‘neutral substance’ mixed in it, not just its pure form. “It is important to bear in mind the legislative intent, the object and reasons, and, the preamble of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act while considering whether LSD is to be weighed sans the blotter paper.” The judgment was in a petition filed by NCB which said paper weight must be factored in to decide quantity of LSD seized. It is thus evident that the blotter paper is capable of being swallowed and is used as one of the methods for consuming LSD,” said Justice Mohite-Dere. “LSD put on a blotter paper is capable of being swallowed after placing it on the tongue. It directed the laboratory to submit its report within six weeks to the special NDPS court. The Gandhinagar FSL must give “weight of each of the blot papers purportedly containing LSD on it”, said the HC. The NCB had claimed that Keshwani was found in possession of 0.62gm LSD, a commercial quantity. Keshwani (30) was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau last September in the case against Rhea Chakraborty, former girlfriend of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The court held that the Mumbai forensic science laboratory (FSL) report was “not clear”, and in the interest of justice directed that the seizure of 31 blotter papers from Anuj Keshwani (30) be sent to the Gandhinagar FSL in Gujarat for a fresh test to ascertain whether each of the blotter paper contains LSD. “The whole of the quantity - LSD with blotter paper - is to be taken into consideration whilst considering small or commercial quantity,” said the HC. LSD, a hallucinogenic narcotic drug, is placed as small dots on blotter paper for consumption. Justice Revati Mohite-Dere held that blotter paper be considered while weighing Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) based on an “underlying principle” enunciated by the Supreme Court, which in a case pertaining to heroin, had contemplated the whole ‘mixture’ while deciding its weight.
MUMBAI: Merely because a blotter paper can be licked or put in a glass of water does not necessarily mean that it must be excluded while determining the LSD weight, ruled the Bombay high court on Monday.
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