Mumbai: Calling it “preposterous”, Bombay high court on Monday dismissed a drug trafficking case registered in 2021 against Dhruv Tahil, son of actor Dalip Tahil. The court held the law prohibits a merging of several minor aberrations over 18 months into one charge, a move that led to Tahil “being charged with an offence of a higher magnitude”.Holding the Bandra Anti-Narcotic Cell’s action as impermissible after analysing sections 218 and 219 of the erstwhile CrPC, the HC said: “Prosecution cannot be permitted to decipher and follow its own procedure for levying of charge of such a serious nature which is impermissible under the provisions of (law).” Pointing out that Tahil was not even arrested in possession of contraband, Justice Milind Jadhav said: “Prima facie when section 218 (of CrPC) is read, such charge by prosecution on the face of record appears to be preposterous… The procedural law does not permit the prosecution to assimilate more than three charges into a singular charge over a period of 18 months to be tried together and invoke a singular precipitative action.“The ANC, Bandra unit, in May 2021 arrested Tahil, then aged 30, after a co-accused, Muzammil Shaikh, held in Bandra (E) with 35 gm of mephedrone (MD), alleged that he had “in the past” supplied to him and various others. Police said it recovered WhatsApp messages between Jul 2019 and Jan 2021, which allegedly pertained to purchase of 1 gm or 2 gm of MD on various occasions, totalling 44 gm from Shaikh worth roughly Rs 25,000, to justify its invocation of serious charges of drug trafficking against Tahil in alleged conspiracy with Shaikh.HC noted that for small quantities, the punishment is less — maximum 1 year in jail; but for intermediate quantities (less than commercial) invoked against him, it is 10 years. Justice Jadhav said “the prosecution was aware” each single act of alleged procurement was “less than small quantities” and Tahil would get the benefit of doubt, and hence it combined all the alleged transactions without following the tenets of the exception carved under the law. Tahil had challenged a 2023 rejection of his discharge plea by a special NDPS court.Justice Jadhav, after hearing Tahil’s counsel Ayaz Khan, who alleged non-application of mind by the police and “mala fide intentions” in invoking the charges, and after hearing prosecutor H Dedhia, said, “From the material available on record and invocations of charge… no case is made out for the applicant to stand trial.”HC also said “the alleged WhatsApp chats… in my opinion cannot translate into admissible evidence” during trial.HC said the state failed to comply with CrPC mandate and it led to Tahil “being charged with an offence of a higher magnitude”. That too, under a special law like NDPS, which attracts higher punishment and fine and stringent conditions to get bail, HC noted adding, stringent laws require reciprocal duty on police to strictly comply with the law and its aspects that may have a negative impact on the accused.