DRUG TRAFFICKER GETS DEATH

MUMBAI: In a rare ruling, a special narcotics court in Mumbai on
Wednesday sent a resident of Kashmir convicted for drug trafficking
to the gallows. Ghulam Malik was found guilty in two different cases
for dealing in narcotics. And under stringent provisions of the
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, a second
conviction is punishable only with a mandatory death sentence.

Judge P B Sawant, who sentenced Malik to death, turned emotional
after the sentencing and said, "In my 29 years in the profession and
past ten years as a judicial officer I had given no capital
punishment, but duty is duty and today I have performed it." However,
a legal expert said the order may be questioned in the context of the
NDPS Act which essentially raises the penalty if a man is caught
dealing in drugs a second time round.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had seized a truck loaded with 142
kg of hashish in Ahmedabad in January 2002. Documents found in the
truck indicated that 55 kg of the contraband was destined for Mumbai
where it was to be delivered to Malik. This was the crux of the first
case against Malik.

On January 14, 2002, officials from the Mumbai unit of NCB tracked
Malik to his Dongri residence where they found another 1.8 kg of
hashish. Malik in his interrogation said he had stored more hashish
in a godown in Andheri. Raids on the godown yielded another 188 kg of
hashish. This resulted in him being booked in a second case.

Malik was first convicted in March 2004 by a fast track court in
Gujarat and sentenced to 10 years RI. Then, on December 18, 2007,
judge Sawant found Malik guilty in the case against him in Mumbai for
the seizures made from the godown.

Special public prosecutor Arun Gupte then invoked article 31-A of the
NDPS Act which says that a second conviction is punishable only with
a death sentence. Hence the sessions court gave a death penalty to Malik.

However, advocate Ayaz Khan said article 31-A required some
reinterpretation to understand the spirit behind it. "In Malik's case
both convictions have come as a result of a single drug transaction
whereas the purpose of the mandatory death sentence clause is to
deter convicts from breaking the law again and again," said Khan.
These questions will now be considered by the high court when it
looks at the death sentence handed out by judge Sawant.