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Abdul Rajik v. The State of Madhya Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1001Decided 16 Sept 2026
Criminal Appeal No. 1561 of 2014 with Criminal Appeal No. 1562 of 2014
Justice Sandeep Mehta · Justice Manmohan

Background

In 2004, police in Jabalpur, acting on a tip-off, apprehended Abdul Rajik and a co-accused, Govind, on a public road, allegedly recovering charas (a cannabis derivative) weighing 1 kg and 800 grams respectively from bags they carried. Both were convicted by the Special NDPS Court in 2006 (Rajik sentenced to 10 years, Govind to 8 years) and their appeals were dismissed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2010, leading to this final appeal before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found serious, unexplained gaps in the "link evidence" establishing the chain of custody of the drug samples: the sample packets bore no signatures or identifying marks, the forwarding letter to the forensic lab was dated 1 December 2004 but the lab's own report showed the samples were received only on 6 December 2004, and no witness explained where the samples were during that five-day gap. The Court also noted total non-compliance with Section 52-A of the NDPS Act (which requires samples to be drawn before a Magistrate) and held that the seizure officer's claim of identifying the substance as charas merely by burning a piece of it, without any scientific basis, was not credible. Since the forensic (FSL) report had to be discarded due to the broken chain of custody, there was no other legally admissible evidence proving the recovered substance was actually charas, so an essential ingredient of the offence remained unproved.

Lesson Learnt

In narcotics cases, a conviction cannot stand on a forensic report alone. The prosecution must prove an unbroken, properly documented chain of custody for the seized samples from the moment of seizure to their testing, and any unexplained gap or missing safeguard (like sampling before a Magistrate under Section 52-A) can be fatal to the case, even where a large quantity of contraband was allegedly recovered.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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