India police officers told the court that rats ate nearly 200kg of cannabis seized from criminals and kept in police stations as evidence.
The judge mentioned three cases in which marijuana was destroyed by the rodents.
“Rats are tiny animals and they have no fear of the police. It’s difficult to protect the drug from them.” A statement from the court reads.
Moreover, Judge Sanjay Chaudhary said that when the court asked the police to produce the seized drug as evidence, it was told that 195kg of cannabis had been destroyed by rats.
Likewise, in a different case involving 386kg of cannabis, the police filed a report saying some of the drug was eaten up by the rats.
Judge Chaudhary informed the court that around 700kg of marijuana seized by the police was lying in police stations in Mathura district and that all of it was under danger of infestation by rats.
According to the judge, the police officers had no expertise in dealing with the matter as the rats were too small.
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He then added that the only way to protect the seized goods from “such fearless mice” was to auction the drugs to research labs and medicine firms, with the proceeds going to the government.
Nonetheless, in 2018, eight Argentinian police officers were fired after they blamed mice for the disappearance of half a ton of cannabis from a police warehouse.
However, experts disputed the claim, saying that the animals were unlikely to confuse the drug for food and if a large group of mice had eaten it, a lot of corpses would have been found in the warehouse.