Nigerian carrying drugs in chessboard gets 10-yr RI

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 26

When the Gurgaon police apprehended Nigerian Henry Nath in May 2012, there was little to suggest that the chessboard he was carrying was for playing a different game. Search revealed that 410 gm smack was kept in it.

Just over three years after the incident, a Gurgaon Court has not only convicted and sentenced Henry Nath to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed Rs 1 lakh fine, but has also dubbed drug traffickers as “nation’s enemy”.

Acquitting co-accused Ikechukwu OBI, Gurgaon Additional District and Sessions Judge Phalit Sharma asserted that the accused convicted under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act did not deserve the court’s mercy at the time of sentence pronouncement, as drug trafficking not only affected the locality where it was transacted, but the nation as a whole.

“Such kind of people, with an aim to earn quick money, indulge in this kind of business and make the nation’s wealth and pride i.e. the youth addicted to drugs at the cost of nation’s welfare. Such people are enemy not of the state, but also of the nation because a drug-addicted society has no future of its own and in the chain nation suffers.” He added.

On May 24, 2012, accused Henry Nath was apprehended carrying a chessboard from which smack was recovered. The court was told that the wooden chessboard had four portions from which four polythene packets were found.

The defence tried to pluck holes in the prosecution theory by claiming the absence of independent corroboration.

Taking a note of the assertion, Judge Sharma made it clear that an accused in a drug trafficking case could not take advantage of non-joining of independent witnesses at time of search or seizure, as people generally criticised the police and the courts but seldom came forward to help the prosecution.

“It is a matter of common experience that independent witnesses shun joining search or seizure with a view to avoid wrath and displeasure of the accused, as also the complications which may arise later on account of their appearance in the court from time to time for their evidence,” he said.

“It has also become the general tendency of the people to criticise the police and the courts for their failure, but when an occasion arises to seek their assistance at the time of search or seizure of a contraband or detection of crime they show disinterest. The mere fact that no independent witness could be joined, on account of the aforesaid reasons, in itself, could not be said to be sufficient to disbelieve and distrust the evidence of the prosecution witnesses,” Judge Sharma asserted.