Pankaj Sharma
HANCOCK COUNTY — A man who was originally arrested for a felony drug crime had his case settled earlier this week via a plea agreement after officials from the prosecutor’s office decided that the plea was the best route to take in what ended up being an odd case due to the nature of the drugs.
Pankaj Sharma, 34, Cambridge City, was arrested in May and charged with a Level 3 felony count of possession of a narcotic drug (opium poppy flowers). He instead admitted guilt to a lesser Level 6 felony count of possession of a narcotic drug in Hancock County Superior Court 1 on Wednesday.
Judge D.J. Davis accepted the plea deal and handed down the sentence. Sharma was given a term of 912 days or a two-and-a-half-year term to be served in the Hancock County Jail, court records show. The full term however was suspended to probation. Sharma also received 10 days of good jail credit time.
Prosecutor Brent Eaton said this type of drug case, due to the nature of drugs found (opium poppy flowers), kept his office from moving forward with a trial or a higher crime charge.
“Unfortunately, and we looked, but the state does not have any officers who have experience prosecuting this type of drug,” Eaton said.
That included the prosecutor’s office checking with federal officials as well as officials from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department to see if they could assist with the prosecution. Eaton noted testing on opium poppy flowers doesn’t always come back positive, so rather than roll the dice with a trial and come up empty, his office decided that charging Sharma with the Level 6 crime was the best route.
“It’s not ideal, but it is what we were left with,” Eaton said.
The fact Sharma didn’t have any type of criminal history also contributed to the decision to go with a plea deal, Eaton said.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Sharma ran into trouble when an alert law enforcement official saw him take part in what officials believe was an illegal drug purchase. Officials later found Sharma to be in possession of illegal narcotic drugs.
An officials report stated, a deputy with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department was observing vehicles at the Speedway gas station, 2668 North 600W, on May 12 when an officer observed a male passenger of a truck exit the vehicle and start talking with a person in another vehicle.
The officer stated the male passenger, later identified as Sharma, handed the person in the other vehicle what looked like at least a $100 bill in exchange for a bag. Sharma then took the bag back to the truck he was riding in, the report stated.
When the truck Sharma was a passenger in left the gas station, the officer followed and ran the plates. The return indicated the truck had expired plates, the affidavit said. After activating police lights and the siren, the official observed Sharma take the bag from the passenger seat area where he was sitting and place the bag in the back seat.
The officer noted that he could see Sharma lift out of the seat and turn around to the back seat area where it appeared he was reaching under the back seat.
After getting consent to search the truck, officials found a white bag containing what they identified through training and experience as opium poppy flowers, the affidavit said. The suspected poppy flowers were estimated to weigh well over 28 grams, the report stated.
