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High Court acquits man of drug charges

July 24, 2018 1:11 am

A man charged with one count of possession of illicit drugs and two counts of cultivation of illicit drugs has been acquitted by the Labasa High court.

Navinesh Prasad was found not guilty of the charges by the high court assessors.

It was alleged that on February 7th 2016, police officers raided the home of Prasad and found a small amount of dried marijuana leaves and a tiny amount of marijuana seeds.

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However, during the trial Prasad testified he was ambushed by about 20 officers who forced their way into his house without saying why they were there and without showing him a search warrant.

He claimed the items found were not his and when he denied the knowledge of the items produced he said he was slapped and pushed to the wall.

High Court Judge Justice Paul Madigan said during the trial it was apparent the case had been poorly prepared.

Justice Madigan said the statements were missing and the officers gave evidence which in many aspects contradicted each other.

The High court Judge agreed with the unanimous opinions of the assessors and found the accused not guilty.