Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: The Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) Goa zonal unit has submitted a chargesheet against Israeli citizen David Driham, also known as Dudu, in connection with a narcotics case registered in June 2025.
The case is scheduled to be taken up on December 29 before the Principal District and Sessions Court, North Goa.
Driham had earlier been granted conditional bail on June 4 by the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Mapusa, after the court found procedural lapses in his arrest. The JMFC noted that the NCB had failed to provide the accused with a written copy of the grounds of arrest at the time of taking him into custody. Driham was arrested during a raid in North Goa with what was described as a variable quantity of suspected cocaine.
In its order, the court observed that while the arresting agency claimed the grounds of arrest were explained to the accused, no written copy was furnished either to him or to his relatives. The court further pointed out that the arrest memo could not be treated as a substitute for the grounds of arrest.
The JMFC held that the failure to supply the grounds of arrest amounted to a violation of the accused’s fundamental rights, relying on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Vihaan Kumar vs State of Haryana (2025).
Driham has also been involved in earlier litigation. In 2023, a court discharged him in a 2010 drug case, citing insufficient evidence to frame charges against him. In the same order, the court directed that charges be framed against then Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) officials of the Goa Police, who were accused of planting drugs on him.
That case was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which concluded that Driham had been threatened and falsely implicated by the police.
