“Indian Hemp”

Hindu Smuggler in Fiji Gets Five Years

Suva, May 25.

PLEADING guilty to a charge of attempting to import Indian hemp (gunja) in contravention of Section 34 of the Drugs and Poisons Ordinance 1926, Lalubhai Velabh Khatri, a well-known Indian businessman of Suva, was sen tenced to five years’ penal servitude and fined £250 by the Chief Justice (Captain M. H. Maxwell-Anderson) at a special sitting of the Central Criminal Court.

Sentencing the accused, His Honour said, “Khatri, you stand convicted on your own confession of a very serious crime, not only against the law of Fiji, but against the law of the nations. It has been necessary for all civilized nations to combine to pass legislation ensuring that the traffic in drugs be put down with an iron hand.

“It is the first case of its kind in Fiji, and you have heard the Attorney-General say that you are liable to ten years’ im prisonment, and a fine, in addition, of £1000. It is difficult to fix the punishment, but I have a slight guide in a case in England, in which the accused was merely found in England with a bill of lading concerning a shipment of drugs from France to Japan in his possession.

He was merely the holder of the bill of lading, and had no intention of importing the drugs into England; yet he was sen tenced to three years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecu tion amounting to £700 or £800. On an appeal being made, three judges unani mously agreed that the sentence was not a day too severe.

“Yours is a much more serious case,” continued His Honour. “I give full credit to the plea that you fell to temptation* but the whole idea of a heavy punish ment is to prevent the traffic in drugs, and I feel that I would not be doing my duty to Fiji and the world if I did not impose a severe sentence. The very least I can do is sentence you to five years’ penal servitude and fine you £250. I think a person who traffics in drugs is a danger to the community, and I shall take steps, if the law permits, to recommend that you be deported back to India at the end of your sentence.”

Counsel for the accused, Mr. A. D. Patel, said that Khatri was a partner in the Pacific Theatre Company, which had been going steadily down, and he got deeply into debt. Certain parties interested in the illicit trade had approached him and

offered him a liberal commission to im port the hemp, and accused had fallen to temptation. He had no previous convic tions.

The Attorney-General, Mr. R. S. Thac ker, drew His Honour’s attention to the fact that the offence was made worse by an attempt to bribe a Customs officer.

The evidence showed that of 19 pack ages consigned to Khatri from India, and supposed to contain Indian cinema films and advertising matter, ten contained In dian hemp. Accused went to the Post Office shortly before closing time to clear the packages, but the Customs Depart ment having received certain information, an official instructed him to come back in the morning. That evening the accused went to the home of the official, Mr. A.

F. Ward, and told him that he wished to get the films through in a hurry, so that he could screen them before another theatre screened Indian pictures. “If you will deliver the parcels to me in the morning without opening them. I will give you £50,” Khatri is alleged to have said.

Mrs. Ward, who was in an adjoining room, corroborated the evidence of her husband regarding this statement. The packages were later opened in the pres ence of Khatri and the police, and ac cused was arrested.

A Customs officer stated in Court that Indian hemp sells at from £2/10/- to £3 an ounce locally, and on that basis the shipment which Khatri attempted to bring in would be worth from £1500 to £2000 in Fiji.