Lucknow: A special court in Bahraich on Friday sentenced two Nepalese women to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment each after convicting them in a charas smuggling case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1.25 lakh on each convict, failing which they will have to undergo additional imprisonment of a year and 2 months.The order was passed by the additional sessions judge (NDPS Act court), Kavita Nigam.Special public prosecutor Prem Prakash Mishra said that the case was of January 1, 2024, when police were conducting routine checking of people entering India from Nepal in the Rupaidiha border area.“During the inspection, two women entering India from Nepal aroused suspicion. Women cops were called to conduct a search and 2.95 kg of charas was found on each woman, totalling 5.9 kg, which falls under commercial quantity under the NDPS Act,” said Mishra.The accused were identified as Chand Kumari Renmi (25), a resident of Surkhet district of Nepal, and Sanchmaya Tamang Sherpa (26), a resident of Sindhu district in Nepal, Mishra added.Police subsequently registered a case under Sections 8/20 of the NDPS Act and sent the accused to jail. The police conducted a probe and filed a chargesheet on February 22, 2024.Both women were lodged in Bahraich district jail for about 2 years and 2 months during the trial, the prosecutor added.During the sentencing hearing, the defence counsel pleaded for leniency, stating that both convicts came from poor backgrounds.It was submitted that Chand Kumari Renmi has a 5-year-old minor son and her husband is missing, while her elderly father-in-law depends on farming. The defence also argued that Sanchmaya Tamang Sherpa’s husband works as a labourer, and she too has a 5-year-old son, while her in-laws are elderly.However, the prosecution opposed the plea and argued that the large quantity of charas recovered indicated involvement in narcotics trafficking, which harms society by pushing young people towards drug addiction. The prosecution therefore urged the court to impose a stringent punishment.After hearing both sides and examining the case records, the court observed that the commercial quantity of a banned narcotic substance was recovered from the accused, making the offence serious under the NDPS Act.Taking into account the facts of the case, the court convicted both women and sentenced them to 12 years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 1.25 lakh each, stating that the punishment would serve the ends of justice.
