India: Rats Blamed for 400 Pounds of Weed Missing from Evidence Locker
The police in the Uttar Pradesh state of India couldn’t protect 400 pounds of marijuana that they kept as evidence for three court cases. According to the police officers, it was rats that destroyed the stash, reports BBC.
It’s not clear whether the charges against the defendants were dismissed for lack of evidence, but the court had to come out with a statement and sounded rather apologetic when it explained that rats are small animals and fearless of the police so there’s no way of protecting against them.
Floods Could Have Been Another Culprit
While pointing fingers at rodents seems like a perfect excuse, an Uttar Pradesh police representative told the media that it could have been the floods after recent heavy rains that did at least part of the damage. Whatever the real cause, it points to the critical wear of the infrastructure of the police buildings in this Indian state.
An Even Bigger Stash Under Threat
According to Judge Sanjay Chaudhary who wrote the apologetic statement on behalf of the police, an additional 1500 pounds of the drug held in the evidence locker are still threatened by rats. His suggestion was to deal with this grave problem by selling the evidence before it was too late.
Of course, Judge Chaudhary didn’t propose to push all that weed on the streets, but there are enough research facilities and medical companies in India that could use the drug for their studies while the proceeds from the auctioned weed would fill the government’s coffers. It looks like a win-win situation for everybody. Except for the fun-loving rodents, of course, who’d clearly prefer to keep on partying.
