Banur man caught with intoxicating tablets to spend 12 years in jail

Three years after a Banur resident was caught with commercial quantities of intoxicating Lomotil tablets in November 2021, a local court has sentenced him to 12-year rigorous imprisonment.

“The drug menace is widespread in the state. It has assumed alarming proportion and has literally consumed thousands of innocent families. Most stringent sentence is warranted so as to instil fear in such drug peddlers, who play with precious lives of gullible youth and nibble at the foundations of our country,” said the court while awarding the sentence.

As per case files, on November 12, 2021, a patrolling team was present near Jharmari barrier on the Ambala-Chandigarh highway and conducting a search of vehicles.

Around 5.30 pm, the police team noticed a man coming from Ambala side while carrying a bag.

Later, finding a prima-facie case, charges were framed against the accused under Section 22 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, to which the accused pleaded “not guilty” and claimed trial.

During trial, the accused denied all allegations, claiming that he had been falsely implicated on the basis of forged and fabricated evidence, and nothing was recovered from him, as alleged by the prosecution.

The defence counsel also averred that there was a delay of 10 days in sending the samples to the forensic science laboratory.

Meanwhile, the court observed that the prosecution witnesses were cross-examined at length and said nothing that could dent the prosecution version. “...all these witnesses stood the touchstone of cross-examination and have consistently deposed regarding the prosecution version. Although, there is delay of about nine days in deposit of the sample parcel to the chemical examiner, from the evidence, led by the prosecution, it is evident that seal on the sample parcels was intact when it reached the chemical examiner lab,” the court stated.