Police in India loose 200kgs of cannabis as rats ‘feast’ of evidence
Police in India are counting losses after 200kgs of cannabis that they had seized that was meant to be used as evidence in a drug peddling case were feasted on by rats.
The court had asked the police to produce the stash as evidence but 195kg of cannabis had been “destroyed” by rats.
The BBC reported that Judge Sanjay Chaudhary said some 700kg of marijuana seized by the police was lying in police stations in Mathura district and that “all of it was under danger of infestation by rats.”
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He said the police had no expertise in dealing with the matter as the rats were “too small” and the only way to protect the seized goods from “such fearless mice,” was to auction the drugs to research labs and medicine firms, with the proceeds going to the government.
However, MP Singh, a senior police official of Mathura district, told reporters that some of the marijuana stored in police stations under his vicinity had been “damaged due to heavy rains” and not destroyed by rats.
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It remains unclear whether indeed the seized drugs were destroyed by the rodents or there is more to it than meets the eye as was the case in Argentina two years ago.
According to the Guardian, eight Argentinian police officers were dismissed after claiming that more than half a ton of marijuana which disappeared from a police warehouse had been eaten by mice.
Forensic experts told the court they doubted even a large number of rodents could have eaten so much marijuana. The cannabis had been in storage for two years but of the 6,000kg that had been registered, only 5,460kg were found.