HEAVY SENTENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 112, 14 May 1934, Page 9

HEAVY SENTENCE.

INDIAN MERCHANT SMUGGLER FIVE YEARS AND £250 FINE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SUVA, April 20. The heaviest sentence in any smuggling case yet heard in Fiji was passed to-day by the Chief Justice. The accused was charged with smuggling gunga, a preparation of Indian hemp, into the colon}-, and incidentally with trying to bribe a Cutoms officer to the tune of £50. He was Lalubhai Velabli Ivattri, a part-owner of Pacific Talkies and lately a partner of Kattri Brothers, leading Indian merchants. He pleaded guilty.

His Honor strongly commented upon the serious nature of the offence, and sentenced accused to five years' penal servitude, with a fine of £250, and said that if he had the power he woul I recommend that accused, at the completion of his sentence, be deported to India.

The evidence showed that Kattri imported 19 cases of what he said werrx films for the talkies, but after an informer had given the authorities notice of the attempt, the cases were opened and in ten of them were found Indian hemp, valued (as in Fiji) at from £1500 to £2000. Accused visited the flat of the Customs officer in charge of tho parcels and offered him £50 to deliver the cases without opening them The officer's wife heard everything from behind a curtain.