Mumbai: The Mumbai airport customs officials arrested two passengers for allegedly smuggling hydroponic weed worth Rs8.56 crore from Bangkok. The accused, Mohammad Swail, 23, and Sameer Khan, 21, both residents of Uttar Pradesh, were intercepted on Saturday while crossing the green channel at T2, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, based on spot profiling.

Passengers Admit Possession of Hydroponic Weed

On searching their baggage, customs officers recovered packets containing green dry leafy substance, identified as flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant, commonly called Hydroponic Weed, covered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act. A total of 8,562 grams of weed was seized. During questioning, both admitted knowledge, possession, concealment, and recovery of the narcotics. Investigations also revealed the involvement of other persons who are yet to be traced.

A customs official said efforts are underway to identify associates and determine who was to receive the consignment. Advocates Prabhakar Tripathi and Shubham Upadhyay argued in court that the accused were misled into carrying the baggage, believing it contained food items, and had no knowledge of the concealed drugs. Both were remanded to judicial custody.

Mumbai: Panic gripped the Mumbai Police force on Thursday evening after the control room received a call from an unidentified person claiming that a bomb would be detonated inside a suburban local train — the city’s lifeline. Within hours, the Azad Maidan police special team traced and arrested the caller, identified as Suraj Dharma Jadhav (32), from Kalina, Santacruz.

According to police officials, Jadhav, who is addicted to alcohol, has a past record of making similar hoax bomb threat calls to the police.

About The Case

On Thursday, after consuming liquor, he allegedly phoned the police control room and declared that he would trigger a blast in a suburban train before abruptly disconnecting the call. When police dialed back, the number was found switched off.

With Independence Day around the corner, senior police officials took the threat very seriously and directed the local police, Railway Police, and the Crime Branch to conduct immediate checks. Security was tightened across railway stations, with increased deployment, baggage checks, and inspection of suspicious individuals. However, no suspicious object was found.

Investigators traced the call to Kalina and picked up Jadhav for questioning. During interrogation, he confessed to making the hoax bomb threat. Police revealed that he had earlier been arrested for a similar offense and was out on bail. Despite having been bound down previously under preventive action by the Assistant Commissioner of Police’s office, Jadhav repeated the offense. Authorities have now warned that stricter action will be taken if he violates the bond conditions again.

Meanwhile, the Railway Police Force (RPF) and local police continued heightened vigilance at key stations following the threat.

Mumbai: A special POCSO court in Dindoshi sentenced a 50-year-old Malad businessman, who owns an imitation jewellery factory, to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for repeatedly sexually assaulting a minor girl from April 2021 to February 2023 on the promise of marriage.

Observation Made By The Court

The Dindoshi court, while convicting the businessman, held that, “it is indigestible that a married man who at the relevant time, which is, from 2021 to 2023, was the father of four children, still enticed the victim expressing his desire to marry with her. This itself goes to show that the accused not only had a culpable mental state of mind but also the accused committed the offence of rape, not on one occasion but repeatedly.”

The court noted that the accused exploited the victim’s minority and her family’s status as his tenants, with her mother working in his factory. “The victim was influenced by the accused to marry her once she attained majority. The innocence of the victim reflects from her understanding that she had no idea about the consequences that the accused is quite older than her, he is already married and has four children,” the court added, noting the victim’s lack of maturity and understanding of reality.

In a separate case, a Thane sessions court sentenced a 35-year-old man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment, with a Rs 10,000 fine, for raping his 10-year-old stepdaughter in April 2019, along with a one-year sentence under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and a Rs 1,000 fine.