Chennai: The special court for cases under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act) has awarded 10 years of rigorous imprisonment to a person on charge of trafficking drug to Isreal.
According to N.P. Kumar, Special Public Prosecutor, Y.V. Nagaraj along with Arif U.Patel, G.N. Venugopal, Arumugam, Umerji Musa Patel, Jacob Chacko Panicker and Khalidbhai entered into a criminal conspiracy from April 1992 to March 1994 to involve in drug trafficking. They floated fictitious companies and transported large quantity of hashish sent to Israel.
The Israeli authorities in May 1994 seized 2.918 tons of hashish and destroyed it on orders from Tel Aviv Judge.
On information from Israeli Police the Drug Liaison Officer, Customs and Excise, Mumbai, alerted Narcotics Control Bureau, Chennai Zone, which in turn conducted search in the various places in Chennai.
The personnel seized incriminating documents indicating the involvement in organised trafficking of hashish and mandrax from the 9 accused.
They entered into a criminal conspiracy Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bombay and other places in India and in foreign countries like U.K., Israel, Dubai and South Africa for illegal export of hashish and other narcotic drugs to various destinations.
The cases were split up and trial conducted against Y.V. Nagaraj, K. Suresh, and D. Kannan.
On completion of trial, I-Additional Special Judge K. Ayyappan has sentenced Nagaraj to undergo ten years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped him with a fine of '4 lakh. The Special Judge has acquitted K. Suresh, and D. Kannan from the case. In another similar case earlier, the special judge awarded ten years of RI to Nagaraj.
