NT Reporter
Panaji
The Principal District and Sessions Judge, North Goa, on Monday ordered the framing of charges against Israeli national David Driham alias Dudu in connection with the June 2025 drugs case registered by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Goa zone.The matter is scheduled to come up for hearing on April 1.
It may be noted that on June 4, 2025, the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Mapusa, citing the failure of the NCB to provide in writing the grounds of arrest, had granted conditional bail to Dudu. The NCB had arrested the accused with a variable quantity of suspected cocaine during a raid in North Goa.
The court had observed that no copy of the grounds of arrest was given to the accused nor to the relatives and the memo of arrest is not the same as grounds of arrest.
The court had further observed that it amounted to a violation of fundamental rights as held by the Supreme Court in ‘Vihaan Kumar v/s State of Haryana’.
After completing the investigation, the NCB in December 2025 filed a chargesheet against Dudu.
Incidentally, in 2023, a court had discharged Dudu in connection with a 2010 drugs case owing to lack of sufficient material to frame charges, while ordering the framing of charges against the then officials of the Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC), Goa police. The Goa police officials were accused of planting drugs on Dudu in 2010. The case was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CBI investigation had revealed that Dudu was threatened and that a false case was made against him.
