KARACHI, April 26: A special court for control of narcotic substances sentenced a Bangladeshi national to seven years in prison in a drug trafficking case when he entered a guilty plea on Tuesday.

The accused, Abdul Hanan, was apprehended at Karachi airport in February last and 2.75 kilograms of heroin powder was found in his luggage.

Judge Sanaullah Khan Ghoury of the Special CNS Court-II also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 and in case of non-payment the convict would have to undergo an additional one-year imprisonment.

The accused was produced in court on Tuesday and he filed an application to plead guilty.

The judge recorded his statement in which he, without any undue influence, confessed to have committed the offence. The court in its verdict observed that since the accused pleaded guilty the court took a lenient view and awarded lesser punishment to him.

According to the prosecution, acting on a tip-off, the drug enforcement cell of the customs intercepted a Bangladeshi national at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi as he reached there to leave for Dhaka on Feb 8, 2010 and found 2.75 kilos of heroin in his suitcase.

A case (FIR 9/10) was registered against the accused under Section 6/9-C of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997 at the Customs police station.

The court extended the benefit of Section 382-B (period of detention to be considered while awarding sentence of imprisonment) of the criminal procedure code to the convict and ruled that following the completion of his sentence, he might be deported to Bangladesh.