MAGISTRATE Ann Mc Lennon has dismissed a narcotic possession charge against Nandkishore Nohar, of Canal Number Two Polder. It happened on Monday, July 16, at Wales Court, after the magistrate upheld a no-case submission by attorney-at-Law Mr. Lyndon Amsterdam.
A member of the Narcotics Branch of the Criminal Investigations Department, at Eve Leary, Georgetown, Constable Simon had stopped the defendant while he was riding a bicycle along Vriesland Public Road, also on West Bank Demerara.
The detective testified that he conducted a search which yielded 635 grammes of cannabis (marijuana) strapped to Nohar’s left thigh in a black plastic bag.
Lance Corporal Harold Da Silva said that, at the station, Nohar, voluntarily, gave a written confession.
However, during the trial, Defence Counsel Amsterdam questioned where the narcotic was discovered and why there was no mention of the appearance of a bulky package seen before the body search done by Simon.
Questions were also raised about the weighing of the substance and the accuracy of the weight, as Simon admitted that the drug was weighed in a bag which was also placed in the scale.
Following a voir dire (trial within a trial) about the voluntariness of the statement given to Da Silva, the magistrate ruled that the police evidence was not tenable and had been rendered tenuous, so much so that a prima facie case was not made out against the defendant.
She, therefore, threw out the charge without calling on Nohar for a defence.