10 years jail for five charas smugglers

The sessions court on Wednesday convicted five people of conspiring to smuggle charas from Srinagar to Gujarat with the intention to sell the contraband in the international market.

The court sentenced Subhashsingh Sanshersingh, Jay Rathod, Suresh Sanchala, Kamaljit Kaur and Prakash Bavlekar to 10 years in jail and fined them Rs1 lakh each.

During hearing of the case, special public prosecutor Sudhir Gupta argued that Bavlekar, a resident of Mumbai, had hatched the conspiracy to send charas from Srinagar to Mumbai and from Mumbai to the international market for sale.

He sent 262.96 kg of charas worth Rs78.89 lakh in the international market, using the truck owned by Kaur.

The charas consignment was sent in July 2006. Gupta further said that the charas was to go directly to Mumbai but, due to the blasts in that city, the consignment was received in Gujarat instead.