Gujarat court sentences man to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment for involvement in trafficking of charas

Ahmedabad: A court here has sentenced a man to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment for his involvement in trafficking nearly 40 kg of charas in 2003.

Additional sessions judge B L Choithani on Monday found the accused, Nasir Hussain Gulam Hussain, guilty of charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Hussain was sentenced to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment, and a fine of Rs 6 lakh was imposed on him.

Officers of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Ahmedabad Zone, intercepted a large consignment of narcotics near the Kalupur railway station in Ahmedabad on September 17, 2003.

They recovered 10 packets of charas, weighing 29.530 kg, and apprehended three persons in connection with the seizure, the NCB stated in a release.

During the investigation, four more packets of charas weighing 10.150 kg were recovered in Kalol the next day, it said.

Nine accused, including Hussain, were arrested and charged with drug trafficking. However, Hussain absconded in 2004 and was arrested 17 years later, in 2022.

The court, meanwhile, convicted the other eight accused under sections 8(c), 22 b(ii)C and 29 of the NDPS Act in 2008.

Upon Hussain's arrest in 2022, a separate trial was initiated.