The NIA Wednesday conducted searches at multiple locations across Delhi, NCR, and other places in connection with its probe into the interception of nearly 3,000 kg of heroin in Gujarat’s Mundra port last September.
In March this year, in a charge sheet filed against 16 people, the National Investigation Agency alleged that those involved in the racket have links with terror groups in Pakistan.
The central agency had filed the charge sheet in an Ahmedabad court against the 16 accused—11 of whom are Afghan nationals, four Indians and one Iranian—in connection with its narco-terrorism probe into the case where 2,988.21 kg of heroin being smuggled in the guise of talc was caught on a ship by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. The consignment was said to be worth over Rs 21,000 crore.
“Links of the accused Mohammad Hasan Hussain Dad and Mohammad Hasan Dad and other co-conspirators have also emerged with proscribed terror organisations based in Pakistan. The proceeds of drug trafficking were channelled back to foreign entities through hawala channels at the behest of Pak-based terror outfits for use in anti-India activities,” the NIA had said in a statement then.
Hasan Dad and Hussain Dad are promoters of Hasan Hussain Ltd based in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It was this company that had sent the consignment declaring it as semi-processed talc stones. The consignment originated from Kandahar in Afghanistan and was sent through Bandar Abbas port in Iran. In India, it was supposed to be received by Andhra Pradesh-based Aashi Trading Company run by Chennai-based Machavaram Sudhakar and his wife Govindaraju Durga Purna Vaisali.
“During the investigation, it was established that the smuggling of narcotics into India was carried out earlier as well by the same set of accused persons. These included the offences registered by the DRI Delhi zonal unit wherein 16.105 Kg of Heroin was seized from a warehouse in Delhi; and a case FIR No- 90/2021 PS Garh Shankar dated 01.07.2021 in Hoshiarpur, Punjab wherein 20.250 kg of Heroin was seized. These two offences were also subsumed in the instant case as connected offences,” the NIA had said.
According to the NIA, the Dads and accused M Sudhakar, D P Vaishali and Rajkumar Perumal of Aashi Trading Company along with others had entered into a criminal conspiracy to smuggle huge quantities of narcotics to India by concealing in consignments of semi-processed talc. “The consignment sent in September 2021 was intercepted whereas earlier consignments were received and stored in a warehouse in Delhi for further distribution in Delhi and Punjab,” it had said.
Those chargesheeted by the agency include 10 arrested and six absconding accused. Among the arrested accused M Sudhakar, D P Vaishali, Perumal and Pradeep Kumar are from India. Mohammad Khan Akhlaqi, Said Mohammad Hussaini, Fardin Amery, Sobhan Aryanfar, Alokozai Mohammad Khan, and Murtaza Hakimi are Afghan nationals,
The six absconding accused who have been chargesheeted include the Dads, Iranian national Javad Najafi and Afghan nationals Najibullah Khan Khalid, Esmat Ullah Honari, and Abdul Hadi Alizada.
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