Family shouldn't suffer: Supreme Court after NDPS accused's kids bullied for false link to Pahalgam attack

The Supreme Court on Thursday took note of concerns that the children of a man accused under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act were being taunted after he was wrongly linked to the recent Pahalgam terror attack that claimed the lives of 26 [Harpreet Singh Talwar @ Kabir Talwar vs. The State of Gujarat]..While hearing the accused's bail application, a bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and N Kotiswar Singh observed,"No family member of any person, whosoever committed or did not commit anything, no family member should suffer due to it."This, after Senior Advocate Aryama Sundaram, appearing for the accused, submitted that the children of the accused were being bullied in school and labelled “terrorist's children” following the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) claims in court..Solicitor General Tushar Mehta claimed that some of the proceeds from the drugs in the case went to terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba, leading to speculation connecting the case to the recent Pahalgam terror attack..Sundaram contended that the assertion had led to social ostracisation and harassment of the accused’s minor children, prompting the family to bring them back from school.“Suddenly yesterday, Pahalgam was mentioned... Kindly clarify this has nothing to do with this NDPS case,” Sundaram urged.Responding to the submissions, Mehta maintained that there was evidence indicating that the proceeds of the alleged drug trafficking had been routed to Lashkar-e-Taiba.However, Sundaram challenged this, asking for documentary proof of such a connection.“Show me a scrap of paper which says so. It is nowhere,” Sundaram submitted..Justice Kant intervened, stating that such issues were not relevant to the matter being considered by the Court. He cautioned against emotional arguments from either side.“This is not the issue that arises for consideration, therefore let's not unnecessarily get into it... Sometimes people are swayed by emotions while arguing cases. It happens on both sides,” he observed.Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati acknowledged that children should not suffer because of proceedings against family members.“Children should not suffer. If that is the issue, the police will take care of it,” Bhati said..[Read Live Coverage]