Ephedrine haul: Ex-Gujarat MLA's son among six sentenced to 10 years in jail

Six persons, including the son of a former Gujarat MLA, were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment by a court here on Monday in a 2016 case related to a seizure of 1,364 kg of ephedrine, valued at Rs 270 crore, from a factory on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

The court of Additional District Judge RPS Raghav sentenced Kishorsinh Rathod, son of former MLA Bhavsinh Rathod from Patan district, Narendra Kachha, Manoj Jain, Punit Singhi, Jay Mukhi and Bharatsinh Kathiya to 10 years in jail under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on each of the convicts.

A total of 43 witnesses deposed during the trial.

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Ahmedabad crime branch had seized the ephedrine cache in April 2016 and arrested Kachha.

According to the prosecution, Kachha was hired by Kishorsinh Rathod to prepare metamphetamine, a party drug.

The prosecution told the court that Kishorsinh Rathod ran a drug racket in collusion with Singhi, Jain and Mukhi, who were arrested by the Thane police in Maharashtra in connection with a seizure of ephedrine worth Rs 2,000 crore from a factory in Solapur.

Kishorsinh Rathod evaded arrest for months before being nabbed by the ATS from the Chambal area on the borders of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in January 2017.

His father Bhavsinh Rathod won the 2007 Gujarat Assembly polls on a Congress ticket, but defected to the BJP to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha election from the Patan seat. He had lost that contest.