In a rare judgment, a special narcotics court here Saturday awarded death penalty to a man for dealing in drugs.

Special Narcotics Court Judge Shalini Nagpal awarded capital punishment to Paramjit Singh for dealing in a 10-kg consignment of heroin in 2007. The consignment was worth crores of rupees in the international market.

Singh was trying to deliver the consignment to an African, Sestus Benson, who was also arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) here in November 2007 from Sector 39.

The court sentenced Benson to 15 years' rigorous imprisonment.

Paramjit was on parole after his arrest and conviction in another drug trafficking case in Delhi when he was arrested here in this case. The court, while awarding capital punishment to him, said that this made his crime a grave one.

NCB officials here said that the death penalty in this case was "historic" and would become a deterrent for drug traffickers.