INDIA. MUMBAI'S FIRST DEATH PENALTY IN A DRUG CASE

February 6, 2008: Gulamali Mallick became the first person in Mumbai, India, to be sentenced to death in a drug smuggling case.
He was convicted twice of having more than 20kg (commercial quantity) of hashish. In India, a second conviction under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act attracts the death penalty.
Narcotic Control Bureau records say Mallick of Gulmarg in J&K off-loaded part of a truckload of hashish (142 kg) on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway and 160kg in a godown at Jogeshwari in 2002. In 2005, a Surat court sentenced him to 10 years in jail. In December 2007, Mallick was once again held guilty by a Mumbai court.
Mallick’s lawyer said, “Both offences were committed in the course of one single transaction of transporting a truckload of hashish from Jammu to Gujarat/Maharashtra in 2002. The death provision therefore does not apply to him.” (Sources: DNA India, 07/02/2008)