The Madhya Pradesh high court has ordered ₹10 lakh compensation for an engineer who was unlawfully detained after security at the Bhopal airport wrongly flagged packets of dried mango powder and spices in his luggage as narcotics in 2010.
Ajay Singh, the engineer, was preparing to board a flight to Delhi when a scan of his luggage indicated traces of heroin and Methyldiethanolamine, leading to his arrest.
However, the Regional Forensic Laboratory and later the Central Forensic Laboratory in Hyderabad confirmed that no banned substances were present, and Singh was released on bail after nearly two months in jail.
Justice Deepak Khot of the Madhya Pradesh high court called Singh's detention a violation of his fundamental rights and directed the state chief secretary to inspect all forensic science laboratories within a month to ensure proper facilities and staffing.
