Dubai drug bust: Indian gets 4 years imprisonment

One of the four Indians, arrested last year on drugs-related charges, has been sentenced to four years in jail by a Dubai court, a media report said on Sunday.

Prasad Divadkar (25) has appealed against the conviction and the Court of Appeal is expected to issue its ruling later in February, the Gulf News reported. Divadkar will be deported after serving the jail term.

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He and three friends Farhan Azmi (22), son of Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi, Shaan Uttam Singh (32), grandson of a film producer, and Bonito Chhabria, son of automobile designer Dilip Chhabria, were arrested at a Dubai hotel in October 2003 by anti-narcotics officers on suspicion of drug abuse.

Police reportedly found some cocaine and hashish in their hotel room as well as in the rented car they were using.

Divadkar was detained while the other three were released after judges dismissed the charges against them and they have since returned to India.

In case of Azmi, the court dismissed the charges after judges decided his alleged drug consumption might have taken place before he had arrived in the UAE.