The Supreme Court has clarified that in drug cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the prosecution cannot rely on legal presumptions alone. Unless basic facts are first proved beyond doubt, the law’s presumption that an accused had a “culpable mental state” under Section 35 of the NDPS Act cannot be invoked. Secondly, and more importantly, it ensures that the statutory presumption does not overreach or take the place of proof of guilt under the guise of ‘presumption of culpable mental state’, court added. However, the Supreme Court said that such confessional statements given to police officers carry no evidentiary value in law. In 2019, an Ahmedabad court sentenced six men to ten years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed fines under Sections 25A and 29 of the NDPS Act.