Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Court confirms conviction for possessing heroin

MADURAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday confirmed the conviction, sentence and fine imposed on four persons for possessing 7.4 kilograms of heroin and attempting to smuggle it to Sri Lanka.

Dismissing their appeals filed before the Madurai Bench, Justice A. Selvam said that he did not find even a flimsy ground to interfere with the judgement delivered by the Special Court for Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Act cases here.

The trial court had sentenced Mohammed Fasrin to 15 years of rigorous imprisonment besides slapping a fine of Rs.1.5 lakh.

Other convicts, Hassan Mohammed, Abdul Nazeer and Muniasamy, were sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and directed to pay a fine of Rs.1 lakh each.

The Narcotics Control Bureau, south zonal unit, had registered the case against the four convicts and two others after seizing the narcotic substance from a hotel here on January 4, 2003. However, the Special Court, on December 16, 2005, acquitted two of them for want of sufficient evidence to prove their involvement in the crime.

Mr. Justice Selvam rejected the appellants’ contention that the prosecution could not be relied upon as it had not examined even a single independent witness.

Rather, he agreed with Special Public Prosecutor C. Arul Vadivel that the NCB sleuths had adduced sufficient evidence to prove the guilt of the accused.

The Judge also refused to accept the appellants’ argument that they were remanded for two days after their arrest and coerced to give a confession statement.

“Simply because the accused have been remanded belatedly, the court cannot automatically come to a conclusion that the statements given by them were not voluntary. If they were really subjected to compulsion or coercion, they would have definitely stated it to the Magistrate concerned at the time of remand,” he said.

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