Elderly woman sentenced to 10 years in prison for trafficking ice

A sessions court has sentenced an elderly woman to ten years in prison in a drug trafficking case. Rukhsana was found guilty of smuggling crystal meth or ice from Balochistan into Karachi in November 2023.

Additional Sessions Judge (West) Aurangzeb Shah announced the verdict after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

He awarded ten-year imprisonment to the convict and ordered her to pay Rs200,000 in fine. In case of failure to pay the fine, she would have to undergo additional six-month imprisonment.

“Upon a thorough examination of the case as a whole, with particular emphasis on the trafficking of the crystal by the female accused, it becomes unmistakably clear that the matter under scrutiny has been decisively proved against her,” ruled the judge.

He said the woman was found trafficking illegal narcotics cleverly concealed in her cloths, and this has been established with convincing evidence. “When dealing with narcotics cases, courts are expected to take a proactive approach rather than acquitting the accused on technicalities. The learned defence counsel highlighted certain inconsistencies in the evidence presented, but I find them insufficient to cast doubt on the prosecution’s case,” he observed. “It is a well-established principle that minor discrepancies may arise in any case, as no testimony can be as precise as a photograph.”

The judge also rejected the defence side’s argument that the witnesses were police officials, saying it was a well-established legal principle that police witnesses hold the same credibility as other public witnesses.

According to state prosecutor Muhammad Arif Sitai, on November 19, 2023, a police patrolling party received spy information that a woman was present at the Yousuf Goth bus terminal in Saeedabad, who was in possession of drugs.

Upon such information, they called a female constable, who accompanied them to the specified location to apprehend the suspect. During search, a shopper containing 1,010 grams of crystal, Rs9,000 cash, mobile phone and a ticket of a Turbat to Karachi coach was recovered from the woman.

She disclosed to the police that the narcotic substance was sent by Mehboob from Turbat. In her statement, the woman claimed innocence saying that she had been falsely implicated in the present case. She claimed that the seized drugs had been planted on her. An FIR was lodged under Section 6/9(2)6 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Act, 2022.