Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) M K Nagpal also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on 44-year-old Ma Sol Baillo, a resident of Manduriao in Philippines, holding her guilty under various sections of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
"Keeping in view the age, family background and all other attending circumstances, the convict (Baillo) is being awarded the minimum sentence of rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years each...," the court said.
Baillo was arrested on June 13, 2006 by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on a tip-off that she was to travel to Bangkok with a suitcase containing the contraband.
The DRI sleuths intercepted Baillo at the IGI airport and during her search, they found a packet of two kgs of heroin, concealed in the false bottom of her suitcase.
During the trial, Baillo denied recovery of the drug from her suitcase and said she was falsely implicated in the case and all the proceedings were done at the DRI's office where her signatures were also taken on many blank papers.
She claimed she had come to India on a tourist visa to see some historical places and when she was going to make an ISD call to her family from a STD booth at the airport, she was apprehended and was forcibly taken to the DRI office and the heroin was planted upon her.
The court, however, brushed aside her contentions and convicted her saying "the prosecution has also successfully proved an attempt on the part of the accused to export the above contraband substance..."