Palanpur, Jul 11 A special court at Palanpur in Gujarat's Banaskantha district has sentenced a man to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment in a case of seizure of charas valued at Rs 1 crore in 2020.
The Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) had seized 16.57 kg of charas from a vehicle near Palanpur on October 13, 2020, and arrested Mumbai resident Fahim Baig and Sameer Ahmed Sheikh Nagori who hailed from Aurangabad (now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) in Maharashtra.
Baig absconded after obtaining bail, officials said.
Judge D S Shrivastava of the special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court convicted Nagori on July 7, the ATS said in a release.
"The accused was convicted under the NDPS Act and sentenced to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 2,00,000. If the fine is not paid, he will have to undergo another year of rigorous imprisonment," it said.
The court noted that drug trafficking poses a serious threat to the community, especially the youth.
"Considering the quantity of narcotics seized, the seriousness of the crime and its impact on society, the accused has been sentenced to strict punishment," said the judge.
As per the ATS, the accused stated during interrogation that Imran Malek, the main accused who was arrested a few days later, had sent them to Ludhiana to bring a consignment of medicines, and they were to receive Rs 50,000 for the job. The consignment actually contained charas.
Malek had been arrested in 2011 by the Bandra police in Mumbai in a similar case and released in 2014.
