ORDER

Petitioner has invoked the jurisdiction under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, to quash all proceedings against him.

2. Petitioner is the sole accused in C.C. No.193/2023 on the files of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Kakkanad, which arises out of Crime No.257/2023 of InfoPark Police Station, registered for the offence under Section 27(b) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

3. According to the prosecution, while the police were on patrol duty on 21.02.2023, they noticed that the accused was lighting a beedi in front of an apartment at Kakkanad in Ernakulam and on seeing the police, he threw the beedi and attempted to run away. However, on apprehending the accused and from the smell of ganja in his breath, the police realised that he was smoking a narcotic drug and after seizing the beedi stub, petitioner was arrested and indicted him for the offence alleged.

4. I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as the learned Public Prosecutor

5. Concededly, the beedi allegedly smoked by the petitioner has not been subjected to any forensic analysis. The detecting ofÏcer had, on the basis of sensory perception seized the beedi and arrayed the petitioner as an accused. The learned Public Prosecutor fairly submitted that, till date, the beedi has not been subjected to any forensic examination and the petitioner was arrayed as an accused without any such examination. Neither the accused nor even the beedi was subjected to any forensic examination.

6. This Court has, in the decision of Ibnu Shijil v. State of Kerala [2024 (5) KHC 476], observed that the investigating o olfactory senses cannot be the reason for initiating proceedings under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

7. The aforementioned case involved a similar circumstance, wherein this Court found that the investigating ofÏcer arraigned a person as an accused merely on the basis of the smell of ganja on the breath of the accused.

8. Since, admittedly, the beedi allegedly smoked by the petitioner has not been subjected to any forensic examination, the criminal proceedings against the petitioner have no legal basis. The uncontroverted allegations made in the final report and the evidence collected in support of the same do not disclose the commission of any offence which would make out a case against the accused.

9. Hence the proceeding in C.C. No.193/2023 on the files of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Kakkanad, which arose out of Crime No.257/2023 of InfoPark Police Station, is hereby quashed.

The Criminal Miscellaneous Case is allowed.