One sentenced to death for drug peddling

Barasat Court on Friday sentenced a convict to death and another to imprisonment for 30 years on charges of peddling drugs. 

It may be mentioned that capital punishment on charges of drug peddling is rare in the country. 

The court had convicted both Ansar Ali and his friend Dipak Giri for the crime on Thursday. The quantum of punishment was announced on Friday. Ansar was arrested twice on charges of peddling drug and the second time Giri was arrested along with him. 

Ansar was first arrested red handed in 1987 when he was smuggling drugs. Around 3.5 kg brown sugar was recovered from him then. Investigation had revealed that he was a new comer to the “illegal trade”. 

Prior to initiating smuggling drugs, he was also involved in various other anti-social activities. He was sent to correctional home after his arrests. After a few months he managed to get a bail. 

Soon after the release from the correctional home, he again started smuggling drugs. Police from both North 24-Parganas and Kolkata received tip off about his involvement with an international drug peddling racket. 

Senior police officers of both North 24-Parganas and Kolkata Police had shared the information with the officers of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) here in Kolkata. The NCB also started keeping a tab on his movement. 

In 2002, acting on a tip off, a joint team comprising NCB officer and senior police officers in plain clothes waited at a place near Kolkata Airport.

After around an hour, Ansar along with Giri reached the spot with the consignment. Police waited for the receiver but for some reason the receiver didn’t turn up. Without losing any time, the NCB officers and policemen caught the duo while they were returning from the spot.  Ansar was carrying a bag containing 53.50 kg brown sugar. The then market price of the narcotic substance was around Rs 53 crore.  He was initially remanded in the custody for interrogation and was later send to judicial custody after being produced before the court. The police filed chargesheet against him and the trial continued after the charges were framed. On Thursday, the court held both of them guilty. On Friday the court sentenced death sentence to Ansar and imprisonment to Giri for 30 years along with Rs 3 lakh fine. He will remain in correctional home for one more than year if he fails to pay the money.