Mohali: 10-year rigorous jail for farmer, driver caught with 50 kg poppy husk
Identified as Kulvir Singh of Fatehgarh Sahib and Manga Singh of Khanna, Ludhiana, the convicts were also fined ₹1 lakh each by the Mohali court
A farmer and a driver who were nabbed with 52 kg poppy husk in Mohali in 2018 have been awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment by a local court.
“The prosecution has been able to prove the guilt of the accused and accordingly the accused are held guilty of committing an offence under Sections 15 and 29 of the NDPS Act,” said the court of special judge Avtar Singh while convicting the duo.
Identified as Kulvir Singh of Fatehgarh Sahib and Manga Singh of Khanna, Ludhiana, the convicts were also fined ₹1 lakh each.
Earlier, pleading leniency, Kulvir, an agriculturist, submitted that he was the sole breadwinner in the family and had a four-year-old son, while Manga, a driver, said he had a five-month-old daughter.
However, the public prosecutor, SS Sahota, opposed their leniency plea, contending that drug trafficking had assumed alarming proportions and thus, no leniency should be shown to such persons.
As per prosecution, a team of Special Task Force (STF), led by ASI Harbhajan Singh, was present at TDI Colony in the jurisdiction of Balongi police station on August 12, 2018.
The ASI received secret information that the two accused were transporting huge quantities of poppy husk in a Maruti Suzuki Brezza (PB10-FG-5757) from Zirakpur towards Sunny Enclave.
The police party laid a check post, where they intercepted the accused’s car for checking and recovered two plastic sacks containing 52 kg poppy husk, following which they were arrested.
Woman gets 10-year jail for carrying restricted injections
Geeta Devi, 42, a resident of Burail village, Sector 45-B, was also fined ₹1 lakh. She was convicted under Sections 21 and 22 of the NDPS Act. She was booked by the Sector 34 police in September 2018 after recovery of restricted buprenerphine injections from her possession.