A court acquitted local Punjabi singer Gurinderpal Singh alias Vadda Garewal on Thursday in a case involving alleged possession of 30 grams of opium, holding that the prosecution failed to prove that the contraband was in his conscious possession.
Police had booked him at Sohana police station under Sections 18, (punishment for opium offenses) 27, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act. The case arose on April 15, 2020, after police received information that Gurinderpal had been admitted after allegedly consuming an overdose of drugs. SI Harjinder Singh reached room 412 in the hospital with a police team, according to the prosecution. During a search, the police allegedly recovered 30 grams of opium in a bag lying on another bed in the room Charges were framed on October 14, 2021.
Special court judge Hardip Singh noted that investigators could not establish that the bag containing the opium belonged to him. During the trial, defence counsel Dixit Arora argued that police had not established that the bag belonged to Gurinderpal. The court noted that no hospital employee or visitor was examined to establish who had access to the room or bag. The investigating officer also admitted that the bag could have belonged to someone else. The court also found that the prosecution failed to prove drug consumption. It noted that the doctor who conducted the relevant test was not examined and no FSL report proving consumption was produced. The court held that the prosecution failed to prove both conscious possession and consumption beyond reasonable doubt and acquitted the singer.
