MANGALURU: The Principal Districts and Sessions Court , the designated NDPS court , on Thursday awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh for a 22-year-old youth on charges of attempting to carry ganja to a foreign country Pradeep Kumar, a resident of Manjeshwar in Kasargod was caught carrying 1kg ganja valued at Rs 80,000 at the Mangalore International Airport on October 20, 2017. He was scheduled to travel to Bahrain when officials from the customs department and personnel of Air India during the security check held him in possession of ganja concealed in four packets of some eatery. He did not carry any relevant document.AK Chaudhury, the then assistant commissioner of customs at the airport, detained Pradeep and handed him over to the police from Bajpe station along with the seized substance.T D Nagaraj, then inspector at the Bajpe police station filed and submitted the chargesheet to the court. The prosecution examined a total of nine witnesses, including officials and staff of the customs department and Air India. As many as 20 documents were produced, public prosecutor K Pushparaja Adyanthaya said.Former judge KS Beelagi heard the case under the NDPS Act and incumbent judge KS Narayana delivered the verdict.Pradeep will have to face additional six months imprisonment on default of payment. The court has given him a set off for 312 days.

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