New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed its second supplementary charge sheet before a special court in Ahmedabad in connection with a case pertaining to seizure of 2988.210 Kgs of heroin at Mundra Port, Gujarat.
According to an official, the said consignment was sent from Afghanistan via Bandar Abbas, Iran.
Initially, the case was registered by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and later, the probe was taken over by the NIA on October 6, 2021.
In March 2022, the NIA filed a charge sheet against 16 accused. After this, a supplementary charge sheet was filed against nine accused in August 2022.
The second supplementary charge sheet was filed against 22 accused which included private firms too.
“During further investigation, it was found that there is an organised criminal conspiracy to smuggle illegal consignments of heroin through international trade routes to India from Afghanistan, hatched by the accused. While investigating forward and backward linkages of the crime, a well-oiled network of operatives involved in the import, facilitation and transport of drug laden consignments has been uncovered.
“It has also been revealed that consignments were being imported through multiple fake/shell import proprietorship firms floated in India through multiple accused,” the NIA said.
Prime accused Harpreet Singh Talwar alias Kabir Talwar visited Dubai, UAE on multiple occasions and wilfully participated in the conspiracy for exploiting the commercial sea-route of import, in order to smuggle heroin into India in commercial quantities.
Talwar was running multiple trades in New Delhi, like clubs, retail showrooms and import firms. These firms are opened by Kabir Talwar in the names of his employees, relatives and friends, which are solely operated by him. These firms were used for importing narcotics, banned items and receiving remittances in the form of legitimate goods in lieu of his role in the smuggling cartel, the NIA said.
Over a dozen such firms have been identified and investigated, including the charge-sheeted firm, M/s Magent India. This company was used to import and receive heroin disguised as semi-processed talc stone from Afghanistan to India.
Investigations revealed that an organised network of syndicate members was being run by foreign based narcotic traders for importing the heroin laden consignments into Indian Ports (Mundra, Kolkata) and its further delivery to various warehouses located at New Delhi.
The India based network of Afghan nationals was responsible for hiring these warehouses and for extracting and distributing the heroin once it reached New Delhi.
“Investigation established that funds generated through the sale proceeds of heroin were provided to operatives of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for furtherance of terrorist activities in India,” said the NIA.
Further investigations in the matter are on.
–IANS
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