Mira Road bizman gets 20 years in jail for possessing 5 kg Mephedrone

Businessman Sanjay Jain has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for possessing 5kg of Mephedrone in 2015. Others involved in the case were acquitted.

Mumbai: A Mira Road-based businessman, Sanjay Jain, was convicted to 20 years imprisonment on Monday for possessing 5 kg Mephedrone in 2015.

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The special NDPS court, however, acquitted the two main accused, Pramod Pandey and Rajan Rajput, who allegedly supplied the drug to the UK as well as the US and Rohan Gawas, who allegedly made the contraband available to Jain.

The other accused – Ladu Kumawat, Chandramani Pandey, Ankit Kapoor, Rakesh Kapoor, Jogabhai, Nanji Dewasi and Parag Mehta, who allegedly had gone to collect a large consignment – were also acquitted in the matter.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raided certain premises in Mira Road on February 25, 2015, based on the information that Jain and Pramod had been storing huge quantities of narcotic substances at a residential premises in Mira Road. When they reached the premises, the officials found Jain in the house, and they claimed to have recovered Mephedrone weighing 5 kg.

The agency claimed that when questioned, Jain confessed that Pramod supplied the contraband and it was to be distributed in the city. When the place was under raid, Chandramani came to collect the drugs for further distribution. Hence after questioning, the two were arrested.

On February 26, 2015, NCB sleuths raided another premises and arrested Pramod and Kumawat. Pramod later said to have disclosed that he was preparing to get delivery of 25 kg of the contraband with the help of other accused. The agency later arrested Ankit, Rakesh, Jogabhai and Dewasi. The NCB had claimed that the contraband was supplied to them by Dahisar resident Mehta, who when apprehended claimed that he had received the contraband from Gawas.

Meanwhile, Ankit and Rakesh who had gone to receive the contraband had claimed that Rajput gave them ₹5 lakh to collect the contraband. Gawas was running a chemical factory in Mahad in Raigad district and used to obtain drugs from one Babasaheb Vasant Dhawale.

The end recipients of the racket were allegedly Pramod and Rajput who used to send this through courier to the UK and the US respectively.

The court acquitted the accused as the prosecution failed to prove the entire chain and also the panch witnesses, who were present at the time of the seizure of 25 kg of Mephedrone, were not available to testify before the court. The court, therefore, said that the prosecution had failed to prove that Pramod, Kumawat, Chandramani, Parag, Rajan and Rohan had hatched a conspiracy.

Jain was convicted as the agency proved that he was in possession of the contraband in the house taken by him on rent.