On 29 October 2026, Special Judge Hoshiyar Singh Verma’s special court at Sundernagar acquitted three men in a 412-gram charas recovery case.[1] The acquitted men were Ajit Kumar, Aman Kumar and Anku Chandel, who had faced charges under Sections 20 and 29 of the NDPS Act.[1] The court freed all three on the benefit of the doubt after finding material contradictions in the evidence about the alleged recovery.[1]
Police had claimed that they stopped an Alto car for checking during a blockade at Pungh on 26 June 2019.[1] Police claimed that two packets containing a total of 412 grams of charas, the local term for cannabis resin, were recovered from under the car’s rear seat.[1] The two independent witnesses examined during the trial did not fully support the police account of the recovery.[1]
Police officers also gave differing accounts of the blockade’s time, place and action during the proceedings.[1] The court found significant contradictions between the witnesses and police officers and held that the prosecution had failed to prove recovery from the accused beyond reasonable doubt.[1]