Ness Wadia sentenced to two years in Japan prison for possessing 25g of cannabis; jail term suspended for five years

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. “It’s a suspended sentence. Hence it won’t impact Ness Wadia in the discharge of any of his responsibilities,” a spokesperson of the Wadia Group told ANI.

The report, aired on NHK ’s Hokkaido station and accessed by Financial Times, said 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 Group replies on Japan Court’s judgment of 2-yr jail term for #NessWadia in the case related to drugs possession. pic.twitter.com/dApTZerqjo

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 30, 2019

A spokesperson for the Wadia group said: The judgement is clear. It is a suspended sentence. Hence it will not impact Ness Wadia in the discharge of any of his responsibilities and he will continue to play the role that he has done hitherto, both within the Group and outside.

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.

This is not the first time Wadia has had a run-in with the law. In 2014, his then partner Preity Zinta had lodged a complaint against him, alleging that he had molested and abused her by grabbing her arm during an IPL match at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.

The last hearing of the case saw a judge advising them that they “resolve the matter” within their personal capacities.