Sri Lankan gets 30-year RI in Chennai over heroin seizure

Ten years after 1.14kg heroin was seized from his bank locker, a Sri Lankan national was on Monday sentenced to 30 years in jail for the offence, the Times of India reported.

The Sri Lankan, M Ashok Kumar, is at present serving an 11-year jail term in another case. The principal special judge for cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, K Ayyappan, on Monday sentenced him to serve 30 years RI and pay Rs 3 lakh fine as he was a repeat offender.

Sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had arrested Kumar, 52, from Thiruvanmiyur in the city on January 23, 2009, in connection with the seizure of 44.8 kg of heroin in Kancheepuram district on May 18, 2002. Ashok Kumar had managed to dodge the investigators for 7 years before he was arrested. In that case, he was sentenced to 11 years of rigorous imprisonment.

During the investigation, the NCB team seized another 1.14 kg of heroin in February 2009 from Kumar’s bank locker.