CHENNAI: A special court in Chennai sentenced four accused to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment for trafficking 303 kilograms of psychedelic drugs.

The special court under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act found the accused guilty under section 235 (2) of Cr.P.C, 8 (c) 20 (b) (ii) (C) and 8 (c) 28 of NDPS act and sentenced the accused to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.90 lakh each on the first, second and third accused, Rs1.70 lakh imposed on the fifth accused.

The case of the prosecution was that on September 19, 2019 the Narcotics Control

Bureau (NCB), Chennai received secret information about a huge quantity of ganja being transported from Andhra Pradesh to Madurai through Karanodai toll plaza, Chennai.

Based on the information, a team of NCB personnel went to Karanodai toll plaza and set up surveillance to nab the accused.

In the meantime, a white color car crossed the toll plaza and tried to exchange two suitcases to a person waiting in a two wheeler, said the prosecution. On suspicion, the NCB team intercepted all the suspected persons and conducted a search.

The NCB team found 303 kilograms of ganja concealed in the suitcases which were being transported from Andhra Pradesh to Madurai for peddling in the local market, said the prosecution.

The team arrested all the accused M Manogran, M Vijaya Kumaran, T Chandran, L Ravi and P Ramesh. Since the third accused T Chandran died during the course of investigation he was abated from the charges.

However, all the other accused pleaded not guilty and submitted that the prosecution failed to prove the offense against them.

After perusal of the documents, the court found all the accused guilty and sentenced them to jail.