A special court will on Monday hear the plea of actor Fardeen Khan to amend the chargesheet filed against him in a cocaine seizure case.
The actor has moved the court saying he was negotiating purchase of one gram of cocaine from a drug peddler when the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested him in May 2001.
This move is considered significant in legal circles as possession of one gram of cocaine attracts six months' jail term while possession of two grams or more of the narcotic specifies ten years rigorous imprisonment under provisions of Narcotics and Psychotrophic Substances Act.
Police claimed that they had arrested the actor when he was purchasing cocaine from a peddler Nasir Abdul Karim Khan. A total of nine grams of the narcotic was seized from them, according to chargesheet.
Fardeen's lawyer Aiyaz Khan has approached the court, demanding that prosecution may specify the amount of cocaine for which Fardeen will be tried, because according to the actor he was purchasing only one gram of cocaine from Nasir. The chargesheet is also silent on this aspect.
Nasir, in a statement, has backed Fardeen's claim saying that he planned to sell only one gram of cocaine to Fardeen
and remaining eight grams to some other buyer.
Fardeen's lawyer Aiyaz Khan told PTI that such specification would help Fardeen's case because punishment varies according to the quantum of drug found on accused.
If, in case of cocaine, quantity found is two grams or less, punishment is six months imprisonment. In the alternative, the court can also let the accused off on probation. The third alternative is committing the accused to detoxication centre, if it is a first-time offence.
On the other hand, if amount of cocaine is above two grams, the minimum punishment is ten years imprisonment, and maximum punishment is 20 years imprisonment.