Business tycoon Ness Wadia has been sentenced to two years in prison in Japan for possession of drugs in the country, a Japanese radio broadcasting station has reported.
He was reportedly detained in custody before being sentenced to two years by the Sapporo District Court. The sentence has been suspended for five years and he has returned to India.
According to reports sniffer dogs had alerted customs officials at Hokkaido’s New Chitose Airport to Wadia. On searching him, Japanese officials found 25 grams of cannabis resin in his pockets. This occurred in early March, and Wadia was promptly arrested under Japan’s stringent narcotics laws. Wadia, one of India’s richest men, is believed to have been on a skiing trip in Japan when he was caught. The New Chitose Airport, where he was caught, functions as a popular transit point for skiers looking to travel to locations like Niseko, Sapporo, Furano and Rusutsu.
Wadia is the son of Nusli Wadia, a British Parsi businessman, entrepreneur and chairman of the Wadia Group. He was the joint managing director of Bombay Dyeing, the flagship company of the Wadia Group, till March 2011 when he stepped down from the post and is now a co-owner of the Indian Premier League cricket team Kings XI Punjab.
