Pubdate: Thu, 07 Feb 2008
Source: Times of India, The (India)
Copyright: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 2008
Contact:  http://www.timesofindia.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/453
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

DRUG TRAFFICKER GETS DEATH

MUMBAI: In a rare ruling, a special narcotics court in Mumbai on 
Wednesday sent a resident of Kashmir convicted for drug trafficking 
to the gallows. Ghulam Malik was found guilty in two different cases 
for dealing in narcotics. And under stringent provisions of the 
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, a second 
conviction is punishable only with a mandatory death sentence.

Judge P B Sawant, who sentenced Malik to death, turned emotional 
after the sentencing and said, "In my 29 years in the profession and 
past ten years as a judicial officer I had given no capital 
punishment, but duty is duty and today I have performed it." However, 
a legal expert said the order may be questioned in the context of the 
NDPS Act which essentially raises the penalty if a man is caught 
dealing in drugs a second time round.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had seized a truck loaded with 142 
kg of hashish in Ahmedabad in January 2002. Documents found in the 
truck indicated that 55 kg of the contraband was destined for Mumbai 
where it was to be delivered to Malik. This was the crux of the first 
case against Malik.

On January 14, 2002, officials from the Mumbai unit of NCB tracked 
Malik to his Dongri residence where they found another 1.8 kg of 
hashish. Malik in his interrogation said he had stored more hashish 
in a godown in Andheri. Raids on the godown yielded another 188 kg of 
hashish. This resulted in him being booked in a second case.

Malik was first convicted in March 2004 by a fast track court in 
Gujarat and sentenced to 10 years RI. Then, on December 18, 2007, 
judge Sawant found Malik guilty in the case against him in Mumbai for 
the seizures made from the godown.

Special public prosecutor Arun Gupte then invoked article 31-A of the 
NDPS Act which says that a second conviction is punishable only with 
a death sentence. Hence the sessions court gave a death penalty to Malik.

However, advocate Ayaz Khan said article 31-A required some 
reinterpretation to understand the spirit behind it. "In Malik's case 
both convictions have come as a result of a single drug transaction 
whereas the purpose of the mandatory death sentence clause is to 
deter convicts from breaking the law again and again," said Khan. 
These questions will now be considered by the high court when it 
looks at the death sentence handed out by judge Sawant.
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