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A 19-year-old Venezuelan man, arrested in a Rs 9 crore drug case, was granted bail by a Mumbai Special Court under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The Venezuelan citizen, Joel Alejandro Veraramos, was arrested by Mumbai’s Sakinaka Police on January 6 this year following information provided by a co-accused.
Around 2:30 am that day, police noticed a man acting suspiciously on Saki Vihar Road. The man, identified as Daniel Naymake from Nigeria, was intercepted after boarding an autorickshaw.
Upon searching his bag, police found 88 capsules containing 880 grams of cocaine valued at Rs 9 crore.
During questioning, Naymake implicated Veraramos, who was staying at a hotel in Sakinaka. Veraramos was arrested after he admitted to ingesting and transporting the drugs from Brazil via Ethiopia to India. However, no drugs were recovered from Veraramos at the time of his arrest.
Veraramos was charged under Sections 8(c), 21(c), and 29 of the NDPS Act, covering illegal possession, trafficking, and conspiracy involving narcotics.
Defence lawyer Khushal Parmar argued that Veraramos’ arrest was based solely on Naymake’s statement, which is inadmissible as evidence under Section 67 of the NDPS Act.
The lawyer stated that no concrete evidence, such as call records or financial transactions, linked Veraramos to Naymake. He also pointed out that Veraramos had cooperated with the investigation and posed no flight risk.
Prosecutor BG Rajput contended that the drugs seized were of a commercial scale and that Naymake’s statement implicated Veraramos directly.
Special Judge Mahesh Jadhav, however, observed that no drugs were recovered from Veraramos and that statements from the co-accused alone could not prove his guilt.
Citing the legal principle of “innocent until proven guilty,” the court granted Veraramos bail on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with sureties.
The court directed Veraramos to refrain from any criminal activity while on bail.
