A model court has sentenced four drug peddlers to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for selling ice. Gul Muhammad, Ghulam Ali Azad, Shoaib and Ahsan were found guilty of possessing file kilogrammes of the narcotic substance in Siddiq Goth in December last year.
Additional Sessions Judge Aziz ur Rehman Junejo of the Model Criminal Trial Court (East) ordered the convicts to pay a fine of Rs500,000. In case of failure to do so, they would have to undergo additional one-year imprisonment, he said, extending the benefit of Section 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code to them, under which the detention period since their arrest would be counted towards their prison term.
The judge said “material discripanies, anomalies, contradictions” in statements of the prosecution witnesses, as pointed out those by the defence side, were minor in nature and did not affect the veracity of the case.
He also rejected the defence counsel’s argument that private witnesses were not listed despite the arrest made in a populated area. “Once the prosecution proved recovery of contraband of huge quantity against the accused persons presumption of guilt arises under Section 29 of the CNS Act [and] then the accused persons were obliged to dislodge or displace such presumption but they failed and otherwise it is now settled principle of law that police officials are as good witnesses as any other,” he noted in his detailed verdict.
According to state prosecutor Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti, the SIU police, acting on spy information, apprehended the four accused during a raid in Siddiq Goth on December 12, 2023. During their search, a plastic bag containing 1,025 grams of ice was recovered from each accused.
He contended that there was sufficient evidence on record to link the accused with the offence, requesting the judge to punish them according to the law. In their statement, however, the accused claimed innocence stating that they had been falsely implicated in the case. Accused Gul Muhammad said that he was a government servant and was picked up from his house on December 7. He said his elder son died of shock after his arrest. An FIR was lodged by the SIU police under Section 9(2)(6) of Control of Narcotic Substances Amendment Act 2022.