Rajkot: A city sessions court convicted a 42-year-old man under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act for possessing more than five kilograms of marijuana and sentenced him to four years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 40,000. The court also took serious note of the convict’s alleged illegal cultivation on govt land and use of an unauthorised electricity connection.The convict, Raju Chhagan Jamod, was living in a house built on govt land near a pond in Revaniya village of Vinchhiya taluka in Rajkot district. According to the prosecution, on Feb 16, 2023, SOG police inspector KB Jadeja received a tip-off that Jamod was cultivating marijuana and storing it for commercial sale. Acting on the information, police raided the premises in the presence of two employees from the Vinchhiya Mamlatdar office as independent witnesses.During the search, police recovered a black sack containing a plant-based narcotic substance kept near a grain storage box. An FSL officer tested the material on the spot and confirmed it to be marijuana weighing 5.28 kg. During the trial, the defence argued that mandatory legal procedures were not followed during the raid and pointed to alleged inconsistencies in witness testimonies while seeking acquittal.District govt pleader SK Vora, however, argued that the Mamlatdar office staff and the FSL officer were independent witnesses whose testimony remained unshaken during cross-examination. He further submitted that the accused’s statutory rights under the NDPS Act had not been violated.Accepting the prosecution’s arguments, additional sessions judge IB Pathan convicted Jamod and sentenced him to four years’ rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 40,000.
