New Delhi, May 01: A local court has sentenced three persons to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and ordered them to pay a fine of Rs one lakh each after finding them guilty of possessing seven kg of heroin which they were allegedly planning to sell. Additional Sessions Judge I S Mehta, who handed down the sentence, also ordered the confiscation of the trio's car, from which they were arrested for possessing the contraband over five years ago near the main gate of foreign post office at Kotla Road in Central Delhi.

If the convicts - Akram alias Fazal Khan (26), Arshad alias Saveer Khan (25) and Firoz Khan (31) - fail to pay the fine, each of them shall have to undergo simple imprisonment for six months more, the court ruled.

The three were part of a gang of drug traffickers from Rajasthan engaged in the smuggling of heroin to Delhi. On a tip off that there would be an exchange of consignment of heroin near the parking opposite the post office, a trap was laid on August 19, 1997 and they were nabbed.

The search of their bag in the car yielded seven small packets containing one kg each of heroin.

"The accused did not cross examine the recovery witnesses on the point that at the time of taking the samples, it was tampered. Thus the possibility of tampering of the case property, sample heroin and the CFSL form is ruled out. Therefore the three cannot be given benefit of doubt," the court held.
Bureau Report