On March 14, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a chargesheet against 16 narco-traffickers which included six Afghan nationals and four Indians, including a woman, in a case relating to the seizure of narcotics drugs at the Mundra Port in Gujarat.
Sources report that nine more accused have been arrested from Hoshiarpur Jail in Punjab and brought to Ahmedabad on a transit warrant after being produced in a local court. They are being held at the Sabarmati Jail and an application for remand is being filed against them on Monday. Among them, four are Afghan nationals and five are Indians.
Earlier arrested include, Rajkumar Perumal, Pradeep Kumar, Machavaram Sudhakar, his wife Durga Purna Govindaraju Vaishali, and six Afghanistan nationals – Mohammad Hussaini, Sobhan Aryanfar, Mohammad Khan Akhlaqi, Fardin Ameryr, Alokozai Mohammed Khan, and Murtuza Hakimi.
The case relates to the seizure of 2,998.21 kg of heroin of Rs 15,000 cr from Mundra Port in Sept 2021. In the course of the investigation, it was found that the same accused had smuggled large amounts of heroin in June 2021 from Kandahar in Afghanistan to Bandar Abbas port in Iran and then to Mundra Port in Gujarat. Later, Hoshiarpur police of Punjab had seized 20.250 kg of heroin in which the accused were arrested. Sources from the NIA claimed that the accused conspired to conceal huge quantities of narcotics in consignments of semi-processed talc in order to smuggle them into India. According to sources, the consignment which smuggled out of Mundra port was hidden in a Delhi-based warehouse.
An NIA official stated: “The consignment was transported to Delhi first and then to Punjab. It has been established during the investigation that accused Mohammad Hasan Hussain Dad and Mohammad Hasan Dad and other co-conspirators are allegedly linked to proscribed terror organizations based in Pakistan. The proceeds of the drugs trafficking were sent back to foreign entities through hawala network at the behest of Pakistan-based terror outfits for use in Anti-India activities.”
