Thrissur: In the complaint over framing a beauty parlour owner in a fake drug case, the Kerala High Court has stayed the arrest of her relative.
Sheela Sunny, the beauty parlour owner in Chalakudy, was jailed for 72 days in the fake drug case. On Monday, the court stayed the arrest of Lydia, the sister of her daughter-in-law.
The HC has also sought an explanation from the government and the Excise Crime Branch over the case. Further proceedings would be made after the explanations were submitted.
In the anticipatory bail plea submitted in court, Lydia said that the Excise Crime Branch was making a move to arraign her as an accused in the drug case and arrest her. The probe team had questioned Lydia twice. During the questioning, the probe team threatened to arrest her in the case, Lydia alleged in her plea. While also raising serious allegations against Sheela Sunny, Lydia said that she had demanded money from her sister.
Sheela Sunny, the 51-year-old owner of ‘She Style’ beauty parlour, was arrested and jailed for 72 days after the ‘drug LSD stamp’ was allegedly seized from her bag. However, a chemical analysis report later revealed that the seized substance was not LSD stamps. Following this, the excise carried out an investigation to find the person who tipped them off, and the name of the sister of her daughter-in-law cropped up. As being in possession of narcotic substances is a serious offence, Sheela was not granted bail by the lower courts. Later, she was granted bail by the High Court and was released on May 10.
The case
The excise issued a press release on February 27, stating that a beauty parlour owner was nabbed with ‘drugs worth Rs 1 lakh' during a search conducted based on a tip-off received by the Chalakudy excise circle inspector. The incident made headlines on February 28. Sheela's Beauty Parlour is situated opposite the town hall along the main road in Chalakudy.
Irinjalakuda excise inspector K Satheesan made the arrest. The excise had said that they received precise information on where the stamps were hidden. When her bag was checked, 12 stamps were found in it. With this, the woman was arrested, and the stamps were sent to the Kakkanad regional lab for testing, the excise said.
