Panchkula woman gets 15-year RI in drugs case in Chandigarh

A Chandigarh court has awarded 15-year rigorous imprisonment to a Panchkula woman after finding her guilty under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act

A Chandigarh court has awarded 15-year rigorous imprisonment to a Panchkula woman after finding her guilty under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. A fine of ₹1.5 lakh has also been imposed on her.

The Panchkula woman was arrested with habit-forming medicines without any valid prescription at Mauli village in Chandigarh last year.

Identified as Manju, 32, who resides in Indira Colony, Sector 16, Panchkula, the woman was arrested with habit-forming medicines without any valid prescription at Mauli village in Chandigarh last year. The haul included 60 vials and 60 capsules.

According to the prosecution, cops were on beat duty near the cremation ground in Mauli village when they saw Manju turning back and walking away briskly on seeing them around 9pm on March 15, 2021. They stopped her, and on frisking recovered 35 vials of Pheniramine and 25 vials of Buprenorphine besides 60 capsules of Tramadol, all habit-forming prescription medicines.

In court, while the woman sought leniency, the public prosecutor sought deterrent punishment be awarded to her. Additional sessions judge Jasbir Singh ruled: “This court has no hitch to hold that the prosecution by oral as well as documentary evidence has been successful in bringing home the guilt against the accused beyond every shadow of reasonable doubt.”

The court held her guilty and pronounced the sentence “in view of the above discussion, the age and the family circumstances of the convict as well as the effects of such type of offences on the society as a whole, wherein numerous households have been ruined due to such type of offences.”