A division bench of Justice BH Marlapalle and Justice UD Salvi directed the trial court to reconsider the death sentence but make a decision within a period of two months.
The Bombay high court on Wednesday referred to the death sentence handed down to Ghulam Mallik, a native of Kashmir, who was sent to the gallows by a special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act in 2008, for the court to make a fresh decision on the sentence after the recent court judgment making it discretionary for the trial court to hand down death sentence under the act.
A division bench of Justice BH Marlapalle and Justice UD Salvi directed the trial court to reconsider the death sentence but make a decision within a period of two months. In 2008, special judge PB Sawant sentenced the accused to death. Mallik was earlier convicted in a Gujarat court for conspiring to smuggle 142kg of hashish in 2004.
On January 14, 2002, Mumbai NCB officers found Mallik in his Dongri residence where they retrieved 1.8kg of hashish. Malik in his interrogation said that he had stored hashish in a godown of Gurudev Singh Vohra. The officers raided Vohra’s Dongri godown in the presence of Mallik and found 28kg of hashish. Mallik also led them to a godown next to Vohra’s where 160kg of hashish was hidden.
Mallik was sent to Gujarat on a transit remand where he was tried for conspiring to smuggle commercial quantities of hashish. On March 9, 2004, he was sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs1 lakh.
When Mallik was tried in Mumbai and convicted for peddling commercial quantity of hashish, the NCB moved an application to hand over the death penalty under section 31-A of the NDPS Act.
After the death sentence, it was sent to the high court for confirmation.
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