KARACHI: A sessions court has sentenced a couple to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for trafficking over one kilogram of illegal drugs within the jurisdiction of the Mochko police station. The additional district and sessions judge (West) found accused Abdul Wahab and Zareena Khatoon guilty of trafficking 600gm of ice (crystal methamphetamine) and 495gm of heroin, recovered during a snap check. “Upon a thorough examination of the case as a whole, with particular emphasis on the astute trafficking of the Ice and Heroin by the accused persons, it becomes unmistakably clear that the matter under scrutiny has been decisively proven against them,” the judge noted. The court also imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on each convict and in case of failure to pay the money, they will have to serve additional imprisonment. According to the state prosecutor, during snap-checking last year in August, police stopped a couple travelling on a motorcycle from Hub Chowki towards Karachi and seized ice from Abdul Wahab and heroin from Zareena Khatoon. During the trial, the accused persons denied the allegation and claimed that police had falsely implicated them in the case. But the court rejected the defence plea and noted that the accused couple neither testified under oath nor provided witnesses in their support. The court also mentioned that they did not express ill will against the police official who had testified against them before the court while they failed to provide reasons why police officials had falsely implicated them in the case. “The defence plea appears weak and unconvincing to the court, as there is no substantial evidence to support the claim,” the court observed. The case was registered at the Mochko police station under sections 9 (1) 6 (b) and 9 (2) 5 of the Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Act, 2022.