Defence gets client a year extra in jail!

MUMBAI, JUNE 27: Renuka Devendra, sentenced for possession of 3.5 gm of heroin, spent a year and a half more than the prescribed term in jail simply because the prosecution and defence counsels had not brushed up on the law.Hearing an appeal against Devendra8217;s conviction, a division bench of Justice N J Pandya and Justice S S Parkar of the Bombay High Court on June 7, 1999, finally ordered Devendra8217;s release from the Arthur Road jail saying she had been wrongly convicted.

Devendra was arrested on January 27, 1997 when she was found in possession of 36 sachets of heroin collectively weighing 3.5 gm. She was tried by the special court under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and on July 17, 1997, convicted under Section 21. She was sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment. While the appeal against her conviction was being heard, the high court questioned her conviction under Section 27 as the quantity of heroin seized from her was very small. This was confirmed the panchnama as well as thedeposition by the investigating officer.

More importantly, Devendra8217;s advocate brought to the court8217;s notice an amendment to Section 27 of the NDPS Act in 1996, under which raised the minimum quantity for a 10-year term from 0.25 gm to 5 gm. This meant that anyone in possession of less than 5 gm could be sentenced to one year only.Devendra also told the court that she had used the narcotic for personal consumption. Having turned to the drug due to mental pressure, she said that in the course of time she had become addicted. Her daily consumption was four to five packets, she told the court.

The high court finally upheld Devendra8217;s argument of personal consumption of the narcotic and convicted her to a year8217;s imprisonment. Since Devendra had already spent two and a half years in jail, the court ordered her release.