In the case of 2,988 kg heroin haul caught at Mundra Adani Port last month, a Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court sent three persons to 10-day custody for interrogation following the argument by the probe agency that it suspects a conspiracy of narco-terrorism in India.
The three accused are the owners of Aashi Trading Company, M. Sudhakar and Govindaraju Durga Purna Vaishali: and Rajkumar P. The Vijaywada based company’s name was revealed in connection with the drug haul as the one whose GST number was used for the consignment. Incidentally, there is huge row in Andhra politics after the police there denying direct involvement of the company and opposition blaming the ruling party being involved.
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The accused were arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on September 17 and the Bhuj court remanded them in custody till October 4. After the probe was transferred to the NIA by the Union home ministry, the NIA obtained the custody of case papers and the accused persons. While the DRI had slapped charges under the NDPS Act, the NIA invoked the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in this case.
he NIA’s special prosecutor, Amit Nair, stated that the agency suspects foreign hand behind Rs. 21000 thousand crore haul and wishes to probe it from narco-terrorism angle.
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On 11 September, DRI officials had caught the contraband drug in guise of talc powder from Gujarat’s Mundra port. The shipment was imported from Afghanistan and was coming from Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port. Several questions arose while interrogating the accused at NDPS court such as why a company from Vijaywada would need a shipment to be offloaded at Mundra, whether Mundra port officials had any role in the case and if there was any system for checking consignments before offloading. The court had asked DRI to probe these issues in the light of the threat that Kutch coast becoming hub for smuggling contraband drugs from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
