Special court rejects arm wrestler Kyle Cummings discharge plea

Cummings had said in his plea that there was no evidence of his involvement in the case, nor has there been any seizure of drugs from him. The Customs branch had claimed that based on specific intelligence received, a ‘suspicious’ parcel was intercepted, which was found to contain 230 grams of banned drug MDMA and 51 grams of methamphetamine.

The Customs department claimed that a controlled delivery operation using a dummy parcel was received by one Shrawan Joshi, who was then arrested. The Customs department claimed that during Joshi’s interrogation, it was revealed that he was collecting the parcel on behalf of Cummings.

Cummings in his plea said that he was being falsely implicated and there was no evidence apart from Joshi’s statement, which is inadmissible in law, to show that he had anything to do with the parcel. The Customs department claimed that they had proof that Cummings had paid Rs 528 towards delivery charges for the parcel via GPay. It was also alleged that calls were received by Joshi, purportedly from Cummings, who had informed him about the place to deliver the parcel.

Another person named Aryan Haldankar,  who Joshi claimed was linked to the drugs, was also arrested.

The court said that these prima facie proofs cannot be ignored at this stage.

While seeking bail in the court, Cummings had said that his arrest was unlawful, claiming that there were procedural lapses. Joshi, too, was granted bail by the high court, where he had submitted that there was an irregularity in the arrest memo.