MADURAI: A Special Court for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) in Madurai on Wednesday sentenced seven persons to undergo 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in a ganja smuggling case reported in Thoothukudi last year.

According to the prosecution, the seven were accused of attempting to smuggle ganja from Tharuvaikulam to Sri Lanka by sea route on July 15 last year. The NIB-CID, Thoothukudi seized 471 kg of ganja and a case was filed against them under Sections 8 ( c ) r/w 20 (b) (ii) ( c ), 25 and 29 of NDPS Act. The seven men facing jail term are M Marikumar (32), J Mansur Ali (37), S Ganesan (49), K Paneerselvam (42), K Yogeshwaran (41), R Prem Singh (34) and G Balamurugan (26).