Ness Wadia, son of industrialist Nusli Wadia and inheritor of one of India's wealthiest business families, has been sentenced for drugs possession while on a skiing holiday to Japan.
Financial Times has reported that Ness Wadia, heir to the 283-year-old Wadia Group and co-owner of the Kings XI Punjab cricket team, was arrested in early March at New Chitose Airport in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
According to a brief report carried by a local Hokkaido station of state broadcaster NHK, customs officials at New Chitose were alerted to Wadia by sniffer dogs and a search revealed that he had about 25g of what appeared to be cannabis resin in his trouser pocket.
Ness is a director of all the major ports of the Wadia group, which now has businesses ranging from biscuit giant Britannia Industries to budget airline GoAir, with a total market value of $13.1 billion.
A court official in Sapporo told the Financial Times that he admitted to possession, arguing that the drug was for his personal use. Japan’s narcotics laws are strict and are currently being applied especially tightly, say criminal lawyers, ahead of this year’s Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Wadia spent a period in detention before his indictment on March 20 and an undisclosed period of detention before a court hearing.
The Sapporo District Court handed him a two-year prison sentence, which was suspended for five years.
He was visiting the resort town of Niseko in Japan, which has become a favoured destination for skiers from across Asia.
The report says that Ness Wadia has since returned to India but he has declined to comment.
Widely perceived to be his father’s successor, in 2011, he was replaced as managing director of the Bombay Dyeing group by his younger brother Jeh.
With IANS inputs