Newmai News Network
Imphal | December 17
Special Court (ND&PS), Manipur, on Thursday acquitted former chairman of Autonomous District Council (ADC), Chandel district, Lhukhosei Zou from the infamous 2018 multi-crore drug seizure case. While acquitting the former ADC chairman, the court convicted two accused of the case, Thangminlun Zou and Tung Khan Mung Zou, under the NDPS Act, 1985.
While pronouncing the judgment of the case, judge W Tonen Meitei of the special court fixed the sentence hearing of the two convicts on December 21, 2020.
The judge acquitted Lhukhosei Zou and others from the case as the prosecution could not prove the charges leveled against them.
The judge further ordered releasing them from the judicial custody where they are lodged since they were arrested by the police on June 20, 2018.
The former ADC chairman was arrested along with seven others by a team of Narcotic and Affairs of Border (NAB) police and Imphal West on June 20, 2018.
While the chargesheet filed against Zou on December 15 of the same year, he was released on interim bail on December 19 on health grounds. On January 8, 2019, when his routine court appearance came he failed to turn up and since then remained traceless. Accordingly, the state government declared him as an absconder.
However, he surrendered to the court in February this year. Zou appeared in the special court in person after the court allowed a plea submitted by his counsel to allow his client to surrender and participate in the trial on February 28, 2020.
The court immediately sent Zou to judicial custody.
The former ADC chairman was elected as the member of district council on Congress ticket and later joined the BJP to form the local body government in Chandel.
Congress party, CADA react to Court verdict
Reacting to the judgment of the Special court (ND&PS), Manipur, the Congress party in Manipur alleged that there is a big question mark on the BJP-led coalition government’s ongoing “war on drugs”.
Talking to reporters during a press conference here on Thursday, Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) spokesperson MLA K Meghachandra alleged that the verdict of the court has reduced the government’s war on drugs to a joke. He further alleged that, in the case, not only some high ranking officials of the police department but high profile politicians are involved.
Many civil society organisations have launched various forms of protests demanding justice in the case. Despite all these, the ADC chairman has been acquitted, the MPCC leader added. Also, Coalition Against Drugs and Alcohol (CADA) strongly reacted to the verdict of the court while urging the government to appeal the order to a higher court.
In a statement, CADA alleged that people are now suspecting on how the main accused has been released after being acquitted.
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