Duo nabbed with banned medicines in Chandigarh get 10-year jail

A district court has awarded a 10-year sentence to two city residents who had been arrested with injections containing banned medicines in 2020.

The court has convicted them under section 22 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on each.

The duo has been identified as Ram Kumar, 34, and Deepak Kumar, 35, from Burail, Sector 45. As per the prosecution case, they had been arrested on July 28, 2020, with the contraband when the police party was on a patrol duty near the garbage centre in Sector 45.

Police recovered 60 injections, 31 containing Buprenorphine 2 ml each and 29 with Pheniramine Maleate 10 ml each. They failed to produce any permit or licence.

While Ram Kumar was found in possession of 16 injections of Buprenorphine and 14 injections of Pheniramine Maleate, the remaining quantity was recovered from Deepak. A case had been registered at the time.

They pleaded innocence in the court, saying that they had been falsely implicated.

The public prosecutor for the state, Sunil Dutt said the offence committed by the accused was serious in nature and that contraband recovered from the accused falls under the category of commercial quantity and sought strict punishment to act as a deterrent for others.

The court held them guilty on February 15 and on Tuesday awarded them 10-years-rigorous imprisonment.