Five years jail for man for ganja possession

Panaji: A North Goa court sentenced Vinod Chavan to five years of rigorous imprisonment and fined him Rs 25,000 in a 2017 narcotics case. Chavan, 38 years old at the time, was caught red-handed with around one kg of ganja worth Rs 1.1 lakh at the Panaji market bus stand in Nov 2017.

He was arrested and remained in custody for eight months. The court set off the period of his custody against his sentence.Goa police received information that a male aged 35-40 years, of medium build, wearing a grey T-shirt and light-coloured blue half-pants, would be coming to deliver drugs between 5 and 5.30pm to potential customers near the bus stop at the Panaji marketplace. On the day, the raiding team reached the bus stand at 5pm, concealed their presence in surrounding areas, and then saw a male person reach the bus stop as per the description given to them.They rushed towards him, surrounded him, and he said he was a Panaji resident and native of Maharashtra. They found a polythene bag with a grass-like substance suspected to be ganja, and he confirmed he brought it to sell to customers. Chavan’s advocate argued that leniency be shown as it was his first offence and he is the family’s only breadwinner and has a wife and children. The advocate also mentioned that the substance seized from him was slightly above a small quantity and that he comes from a weaker section of society.

The court considered the fact that he has a family and is the only breadwinner, and that the quantity of narcotics was just above a small quantity. Consequently, it sentenced him to five years of rigorous imprisonment and fined him Rs 25,000 “as a deterrent punishment”.