Woman gets 10 years for drug trafficking
A 52-year-old woman was jailed for 10 years and slapped a fine of `1 lakh by a Delhi court for drug-peddling while three of her accomplices, including two from her family, were let off due to insufficient evidence.
“Keeping in view the fact that she is not a previous convict and also that the legislature in its own wisdom has prescribed minimum sentence for the offence, I sentence convict Santosh Rani to 10 years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of `1 lakh for the offence under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act,” additional sessions judge V.K. Bansal said.
The police had arrested Uttam Nagar resident Santosh Rani on August 9, 2008, along with three others — her husband Pooran Chand and son Rishi and another woman Gurmeet Kaur — and had recovered 10 kg of opium from them during the raid.
While convicting Santosh Rani under the stringent provision of the NDPS Act, the court, however, let off the other three for want of evidence against them.
The court said there was nothing on record to show that Rishi was having any knowledge that his mother Santosh Rani was carrying contraband in her bag.
“There is no evidence that Santosh Rani handed over or attempted to hand over that bag (of opium) to Gurmeet Kaur. The onus was upon the prosecution to show that Kaur came there to receive the bag or that Santosh came to deliver that bag to Kaur, which prosecution has failed,” the court said.
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