A NDPS court has partitioned the drug haul case against nine persons including Provogue clothing brand promoter Salil Chaturvedi and ordered police to file separate chargesheets in each case.
According to the court's order dated March 8, Chaturvedi will not be tried on the charge of conspiracy and will face trial only for alleged possession of vials of cocaine in his Juhu residence.
Chaturvedi's lawyers had argued that his case should not be linked with that of the other accused since the arrests in the matter took place at different times and there was no common thread to link all the accused to a conspiracy.
Nine persons were arrested in connection with the drug haul in 2005 in which a former employee of the Provogue Lounge in central Mumbai was caught at Mumbai's domestic airport while allegedly trying to smuggle vials of cocaine to Chennai.
Chaturvedi was arrested after police allegedly found vials of cocaine at his residence and said they had found evidence of his role in the conspiracy to smuggle the drugs.
According to the court's order, police now have to file three chargesheets in the case, special public prosecutor Raja Thakrey told PTI.
The first will be against five accused, including former Provogue Lounge employees Vishal Meghnani and Allwyn Sequeira, who were allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine, and two police officials who attempted to destroy evidence against them.
The second chargesheet will be filed against three African nationals who allegedly supplied the cocaine and the third against Chaturvedi, Thakrey said.