Driver held with drugs convicted, gets 10-yr jail term

Kanpur: Additional district and sessions judge (VIII), Sundar Lal, on Wednesday convicted accused Kanhaiya Kumar Rai under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPSA) Act, 1985 for keeping charas and sentenced him to ten years rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs one lakh.
According to the case file, Kanhaiya was a driver of oil tanker. A special team of central excise department seized around 102 kg of charas from his possession.
According to the case file, the central excise department, Lucknow, received information on February 8, 2010 that a huge quantity of charas was being brought from Nepal to Kanpur by a LPG tanker. The central excise department constituted a team and deputed it at Kanpur-Agra national highway. At around 10 pm, the team spotted a LPG gas tanker at Bhauti, and asked the driver to stop the tanker.
The team searched the driver’s cabin and seized 102 kg of charas kept in a box behind the driver’s seat. Driver Kanhaiya Kumar, resident of Begusarai village in Bihar and Jitendra Kumar Jha of Begusarai district were arrested by the team. The value of the seized narcotic was around Rs 30.60 lakh. .
On the quantum of sentence, the prosecution demanded maximum punishment to the accused while the defence counsel requested the court to take a lenient view as the accused had no criminal history, is a young man of 30 years, and the only earning member of his family.