Mangaluru : The Principal District and Sessions Judge, Dakshina Kannada, Ravindra M. Joshi, who is also a special Judge for NDPS Act cases, on Tuesday, January 31, granted bail to nine more medical students arrested recently by the city police on charges of possessing and consuming cannabis.

The bail was granted to Vidush Kumar, Sharanya Prabhakar, Siddarth Pavaskar, Suryajith Dev, Ayasha Mohammed, Pranay Nataraj, Chaitanya R. Tumuluri, Sudheendra and Ish Midda.

The Judge ordered release of the nine medicos on execution of personal bond of Rs. 50,000 with one surety. Asking them not to threaten and tamper prosecution witness, the Judge said they should cooperate with investigation officer in the investigation of the case. They were asked to produce their passport before the investigation officer and not leave jurisdiction of the court without written permission.

On January 27, the Judge, on the same conditions, granted bail to Sameer Fazilul Haque, Nadiya Siraj, Ira Bhasin, Varshini Prathi, Mohammed Rauf alias Gous, Mani Maran Matthu, Rhea Chadha, Bhanu Dahiya, Kshitij Gupta, Mohammed Afrar, V.S. Harsha Kumar, M.S. Balaji and Balam Guruveera Sivasai Raghava Datta.

As many as 29 persons, including 22 medicos, had been arrested by the city police recently in the drug racket cases. A majority of those arrested persons were students and doctors associated with Kasturba Medical College and Hospital. All the 22 medicos had filed bail application under Section 439 of Criminal Procedure Code.

In the bail order, Judge said accused, at the most, can be charged of violating Section 27 (B) (consumption of cannabis) of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The accused, which included, students of MBBS, MS and BDS, and some doctors and professors, are not needed for custodial interrogation. If they are kept in custody, academic career of students will be affected and services of professors and doctors will be missed by patients, the Judge said