New Delhi: A Mumbai court on Thursday gave relief to actor Fardeen Khan in a cocaine seizure case. The court upheld the actor’s plea that he be charged with trying to procure only one gram of cocaine – the conviction for which has lighter punishment.
This charge attracts punishment only for six months as opposed to a 10-year sentence for possessing nine grams of cocaine.
The court also ordered the police to frame charges against Khan for possessing the banned narcotic drug.
Fardeen was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act after he was arrested outside a bank ATM in Juhu on May 5, 2001, while allegedly attempting to purchase cocaine.
Fardeen had tried to buy the cocaine from drug trafficker Nasir Abdul Karim, who was nabbed with a larger quantity of drugs intended for sale.
Now, the actor can even seek immunity from prosecution and volunteer to undergo a “detoxification programme.”
In his application to the NDPS court a few months ago, Fardeen claimed that he had attempted to buy only one gram of cocaine. He had earlier pleaded to the Bombay High Court that the charges be framed only for possessing one gram of the drug.
"NDPS judge P.N. Deshmukh allowed Fardeen's application by which he can be charged only for the possession of one gram cocaine,” the actor’s lawyer Ayaz Khan was quoted as saying by news agency IANS.
Under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the possession of one gram of cocaine attracts six months jail term (upto two gms is small quantity) while holding of more
than two grams but less than 100gms of the narcotic attracts ten years' rigorous imprisonment.
(With agency inputs)
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