Mumbai, July 11 -- Civic activist Faiyaz Shaikh, convenor of the Govandi Citizens Welfare Forum, was on Tuesday discharged from a case filed against him under the stringent Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. The order by special NDPS judge SM Patil, uploaded on Wednesday, said there was not enough evidence to proceed against Shaikh under section 8 of the Act, which relates to selling narcotics. "This wasn't just a case. It was a calculated attempt to crush my image and silence my voice as a civic activist," a relieved Shaikh told HT. The case against him was filed in May 2024, at the fag end of the Lok Sabha poll campaign, in which the Govandi Citizens Welfare Forum had actively campaigned for the INDIA alliance candidate and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Dina Patil. Patil went on to defeat the BJP's sitting MP from Mumbai North East, Manoj Kotak. "I had also filed many petitions in the high court which had exposed the authorities' negligence towards Govandi's problems," Shaikh, also president of the Govandi New Sangam Welfare Society, a registered NGO, said. In September 2023, in response to the NGO's petition, the Bombay high court had directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to shift the bio-medical waste incinerator functioning in Govandi since 2009 within two years. "It is extremely rare to get a discharge under the NDPS Act," Shaikh's lawyer Nilesh Bangar told HT. "Especially in a case involving commercial quantities of narcotics." Faiyaz was named as an accused in the case based on the statement of the prime accused, Tauhid Shaikh, who was charged with possession of 15 bottles of cough syrup containing codeine phosphate, a narcotic. In court, Bangar relied on Supreme Court and high court orders to show that his client's discharge was justified as the police had no material against him except the allegation made by the co-accused. He also cited a judgment which said that when the judge was certain that there was no prospect of the case ending in conviction, the court's time should not be wasted. The judge ruled that there was nothing to show Shaikh's involvement in the offence. Nothing was seized from him and even statements of two witnesses recorded by the police did not show that he was linked with the offence....