/ 10 October 2008

‘Drugs underwear’ theory fails in Indian court

An Indian man escaped a possible death sentence for drug trafficking after his lawyer told a court it was impossible to walk with a stash of heroin in his underpants, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Mumbai police alleged Dhirendra Kamdar was carrying 2kg of the drug in four, 500g packets in his underwear when they picked him up as he walked from a guest house to get a taxi to the city’s airport.

But when the case came to trial, Kamdar’s lawyer, Ayaz Khan, said it was impossible for anyone to walk 1km with such an amount of drugs concealed in his smalls, the Daily News and Analysis newspaper said.

Khan demonstrated his theory to the judge using four identically sized bags filled with sugar, and his client was acquitted of the charge on lack of evidence.

The newspaper said Kamdar allegedly wanted to smuggle the heroin to the United States and had a prior conviction for drug trafficking, which meant he would have been sentenced to death if he had been found guilty a second time. — AFP