The release of Zou not only set an unhealthy precedent; but the general public feels that it demonstrates the ailing state of our criminal justice system where any criminal with long pockets can buy his way out of the system, the civil society coalition said in the petition.
TFM Desk
The 3.5 Collective on Wednesday submitted the online petition in www.change.org to the Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh requesting the re-investigation and re-trial of the judgment/ order dated December 17, 2020 of the ND&PS Court, Manipur in special trial number 100 of 2018 along with the list of 1072 signatories.
The online petition titled, “Drug trafficker caught red handed should not be set free” said that the 3.5 Collective is deeply concerned that Lukhosei Zou, the former chairman of ADC Chandel who had been caught red-handed along with large quantity of drugs in his official quarter was acquitted by the NDPS court. The conviction of two persons (Lukhosei’s driver and a 19 year old lad) out of the 13 accused in this case is also seem as mere act of scapegoating; rather than any genuine act of delivering justice.
The judgement not only set an unhealthy precedent; but the general public feels that it demonstrates the ailing state of our criminal justice system where any criminal with long pockets can buy his way out of the system. If this trend continues unchecked, the drug cartel operating in Manipur will be emboldened and the society will soon be dragged down by the menace of drug beyond redemption, it added.
Following this controversial judgement, the public prosecutor, who argued the case, has submitted six solid legal grounds of appeal vide memo number NDPS/SPLPP/2020/04 dated December 21, 2020. It includes, inter alias, failure of the NDPS court to appreciate the documentary evidence submitted by the prosecution; failure of all the accused to prove their innocence that they were not in a culpable mental state of mind and conspired to do the illegal drug business together. The submission concluded that “All of them ought to have been convicted”, the online petition said.
The 3.5 Collective is a civil society coalition in Manipur striving for the achievement of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 3, target 5, to strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol.
The petition is available at the following link: http:///chng.it/H5TSHXJW.