MUMBAI, May 31 -- A special court has acquitted a 37-year-old man accused of possessing 215 grams of mephedrone (MD), ruling that serious procedural lapses by the Anti-Narcotic Cell (ANC) undermined the prosecution's case and cast doubt on the legality of the search and seizure. Special Judge V.M. Sundale on Thursday cleared Danish Afzal Shaikh, arrested in October 2022 near Bandra Court, after finding that investigators had failed to strictly comply with safeguards mandated under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. According to the prosecution, ANC officers on patrol near the Kherwadi Pumping Centre spotted Shaikh under "suspicious circumstances" and recovered 215 gms of MD from him. However, the court found multiple inconsistencies in the investigation. The judge noted that the prosecution had not satisfactorily established compliance with Section 50 of the NDPS Act, which gives an accused the right to be searched before a magistrate or gazetted officer. A significant blow to the prosecution came when the chemical analyser admitted that the sample envelope received at the lab was not sealed on both sides, raising questions about the evidence's integrity. The court also criticized the lack of call detail records or tower location data, which the defence argued would prove Shaikh was picked up from his residence and falsely implicated. Hence, the possibility of false implication could not be ruled out, the court held....