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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday arrested the owner of a pub called the Playboy Club, located at Samrat Hotel in New Delhi, and one other person in connection with its investigation into the 3,000-kg heroin haul at Gujarat’s Mundra port in September last year. Sources said two others were detained in Surat in connection with the case.
The NIA said it arrested two residents of New Delhi, identified as Harpreet Singh Talwar alias Kabir Talwar and Prince Sharma. According to sources, Talwar runs the Playboy Club.
“Based on investigations so far and incriminating evidence obtained during the searches, two key accused involved in smuggling of heroin through import consignments from Afghanistan using maritime route, have been arrested today,” read an NIA statement regarding the arrest of Talwar and Sharma.
According to the agency, the two are part of an international network involved in the smuggling of large commercial quantities of heroin, originating from Afghanistan, into India. The agency said that the accused were allegedly supplying the narcotics across Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
“Heroin was being concealed in import consignments of material such as semi-processed talc, bituminous coal etc. One such consignment of about 3,000 kg of heroin was intercepted and seized at Mundra Port by DRI (the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) on 13-09-2021. The accused persons were involved in import of narcotics through fake/shell import companies and further facilitated its transport to Delhi-based Afghan nationals involved in purification and distribution of heroin in many states, including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, UP etc,” the NIA statement said.
“Investigation continues to unravel the entire supply chain and network of money laundering, drug distribution and other players involved in this international drug network,” the agency added.
Sources said Talwar had previously been arrested by the DRI in connection with the smuggling of cigarettes.
In March this year, in a chargesheet filed against 16 people in connection with the Mundra drug haul case, the NIA alleged that those involved in the racket have links with terror groups in Pakistan.
The agency had filed a chargesheet in an Ahmedabad court against the 16 accused — 11 of the them are Afghan nationals, four are Indians and one an Iranian — in connection with its investigation into the smuggling of 2,988.21 kg of heroin on a ship in the guise of talc. The heroin, said to be worth more than Rs 21,000 crore, was seized by the DRI.
The NIA had said then that “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 drugs trafficking were channelled back to foreign entities through hawala channels at the behest of Pak(istan)-based terror outfits for use in anti-India activities.”
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Hasan Dad and Hussain Dad are promoters of M/S Hasan Hussain Ltd, which is based in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It was allegedly this company that had sent the consignment, declaring it as semi-processed talc stones. The consignment originated from Kandahar, and was sent through Bandar Abbas port in Iran. In India, it was supposed to be received allegedly by Andhra-based M/S Aashi Trading Company, run by Chennai-based couple Machavaram Sudhakar and his wife Govindaraju Durga Purna Vaisali.
Of the 16 that were chargesheeted by the agency, 10 were arrested and six were absconding. Among the arrested accused, Machavaram Sudhakar, his wife D P Vaishali, Rajkumar Perumal and Pradeep Kumar (from Ghaziabad, UP) 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 include the Dads, Iranian national Javad Najafi and Afghan nationals Najibullah Khan Khalid, Esmat Ullah Honari, and Abdul Hadi Alizada.
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