After 19 yrs on the run, peddler gets 10-year jail

Ludhiana: Almost 22 years after a man was arrested with 2.5kg opium, a local court sentenced him to 10-year rigorous imprisonment. During the trial, the peddler — Ram Pal of Sahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, now residing at Anand Nagar in Khanna — had been on the run for 19 years. Ram had been rearrested on August 6 this year.
The convict prayed for a lenient view considering his old age, first time offence and him being the only bread winner of his family, but special court judge Amrinder Pal Singh said the court didn’t find any reason to take a lenient view as the accused remained absent for 19 years after conclusion of prosecution evidence during trial.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the convict and in default of payment of fine, he will have to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months.
On January 10, 2001, a team of Samrala police had apprehended Ram Pal and seized 2.5kg opium from his trunk. Following an investigation, police had presented a chargesheet against him in the court.
During the trial, Ram had pleaded false implication.
The court held that during cross-examination, nothing was attributed to the investigating officer (IO) or any police official that they had previous enmity with the accused or they had any reason to falsely implicate him in the present case. Moreover, such a huge quantity of opium cannot be expected to be planted upon the accused, the court added.
The court also observed that although there is a delay of five days in sending the sample to the chemical examiner, but nothing was attributed to IO or any other witness that samples were tampered with.
“Moreover, during trial the accused remained absent and was declared a proclaimed offender. After almost 19 years, he was again arrested on August 6, 2022. So the conduct of the accused also shows that he tried to abscond from the jurisdiction of the court and was not intending to face the trial,” the court said.