15 days, 17 convictions: NCB guns for peddlers

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has secured the conviction of 17 persons in drug-related cases across the country within just 15 days, a senior official said on Tuesday.

“In a fortnight, we have obtained convictions in six cases involving 17 accused across Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Kerala and Tamil Naidu,” the senior NCB official said.

Sharing details of the crackdown, the official said two persons arrested with 600 kg of cannabis in January 2021 were convicted by a court in Assam’s Kamrup on April 1. “The contraband was concealed in a secret chamber created inside a truck and was being smuggled from Tripura to Uttar Pradesh. The convicts were sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped Rs 1 lakh fine each,” the official said.

The second case pertains to Lucknow where a man arrested in May 2019 with 500 grams of Alprazolam was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 1 lakh.

5.42 lakh arrested in 5 years

As many as 5.42 lakh people have been arrested across the country over the past five years in cases related to the seizure of narcotics, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In the third case, four persons were convicted by a special NDPS court in Punjab’s Mohali on March 24. “The arrests had led to the recovery of 21.37 kg of cannabis sourced from Himachal Pradesh,” the official said. The Mohali court sentenced three of the accused to 15 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined them Rs 1.5 lakh each. The fourth accused was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 1 lakh.

A special NDPS court in Jamshedpur convicted five persons on March 24. The convicts, who were arrested in November 2021 with 425.5 kg of cannabis sourced from Odisha, were sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 2 lakh each.

In Kerala’s Mallapuram, two persons arrested by the law enforcement agency in September 2023 with 46 LSD blots, 33.909 grams of hashish, 5.34 grams of Methamphetamine and 21.88 grams of hashish oil were sentenced to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh each.

In the sixth case, the NDPS court in Madurai convicted three persons who were arrested with 26.09 kg of hashish oil. They were sentenced to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 1 lakh each.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai had recently told the Lok Sabha that the government was strengthening the NCB and had created 536 additional posts across India. “During the restructuring exercise, special focus has been laid on cyber, legal and enforcement aspects for more effective drug law enforcement,” said Rai.

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