bottles were despatched to the chemical examiner as per the covering letter of the Magistrate dated 1.1.1990. This means that the two sample bottles, even if they were produced before the Magistrate on 24.7.1989 itself, were lying there for nearly five months. It is not explained as to how these sample bottles were despatched to the chemical examiner even without a forwarding not or a requisition. Even assuming that a forwarding note had been filed before the Magistrate, there is no material to indicate that it was the same sample bottles which were packed and sealed in a tamper proof condition and despatched to the chemical examiner. There is no contemporaneous record of any order passed by the Magistrate for despatch of the sample to the chemical examiner. It is not clear as to who ordered to send the sample to the chemical examiner and who packed and sealed the samples. If it was done by the Thondi Section Clerk, there is no evidence to show that it was being done in a tamper proof condition and that too in the presence of the Magistrate. Unless and until the prosecution proves that the sample drawn from the bottles, which were allegedly seized from the hotel, reached the hands of the chemical examiner in a fool proof and tamper proof
