Man caught with ganja gets jail term, but will walk free in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad: On Saturday, Sahibabad resident Nitin got a jail term, but soon he was declared a free man as well — the term of the sentence awarded to the convict was exactly the same as the period already spent in jail. Accordingly, his release was ordered by a court.

Additional sessions judge Sushil Kumar (4th) sentenced Nitin to one year, 10 months and 11 days in jail with a fine of Rs 10,000 for keeping 1.6 kg of ganja, which had been recovered by police nine years ago.

He was arrested by Sahibabad police on March 15, 2016 near Mohan Nagar. The prosecution informed the court he was arrested on suspicion. "When a police team under sub-inspector Radheshyam Yadav was on its patrol duty, one man coming from Rajiv Colony tried to escape on seeing police, so he was stopped for questioning. He confessed to carrying ganja and he was informed about his right to be frisked before a magistrate, but he refused and allowed the police team to do so," the prosecution said.

The court took cognisance of the case under Section 18 read with 20 of the NDPS Act on Oct 9, 2023, following which the hearing started and the prosecution completed recording evidence on Feb 18.

In a sudden turn of events, instead of cross-examining prosecution witnesses, defence sought permission for recording the statement of the accused under Section 313 of CrPC.

The accused supported the prosecution narrative and confessed to carrying the said quantity of ganja for his personal consumption. He, however, denied the prosecution theory that he used to sell ganja to the factory workers to earn a living and urged for leniency.

The court decided to award a term of sentence that the convict had already spent in custody. "Though arrested in March 2016, the accused spent one year, 11 months and 10 days in jail to date, so he is being sentenced with the same term under Section 18 read with 20 of the NDPS Act and is directed to deposit a fine of Rs 10,000, failing which he must spend 30 more days in judicial custody," the court said.