Five Chennai men sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for smuggling ganja

CHENNAI: A special court for narcotics cases in Chennai has sentenced a 26-year-old man to five years’ rigorous imprisonment for smuggling 1.3 kg of ganja in 2020. The court imposed a total fine of Rs 50,000 on the convict, identified as Akbar Khan of Chennai.
Four other men, who were caught with him, were sentenced to two and a half years of rigorous imprisonment.They have been identified as Loganathan, 24, Manikandan, 24, Melki, 26, and Krishna, 22, of Chennai.
On February 11, 2020, the R K Nagar police received a tip-off about a man selling ganja behind IOC bus stand in Thandiyarpet. The police intercepted Akbar and others. Akbar had a bag containing 1.3 kg of ganja.
All of them were all charged under sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. A chargesheet was filed on March 4, 2021.
Principal special judge of the EC and NDPS court C Thirumagal pronounced the verdict on February 20. The judge said, “Akbar alone was caught with illegal possession of ganja. He is given five years and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000. The rest were there at the incident spot and are convicted for criminal conspiracy under Section 29(1) of the NDPS Act alone. They are given two and a half years with a fine of Rs 20,000 each.”.
Special public prosecutor K J Saravanan argued the case.