NEW DELHI: Almost six months after taking over the case of the seizure of about 3,000 kg of heroin from Gujarat’s Mundra port, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed a charge sheet against 16 people including 11 Afghans and one Iranian national in the case.
The accused named in the case were also associated with the Pakistan-based terror groups and the proceeds were channelled back to foreign entities through hawala for anti-India activities.
An NIA spokesperson here said that the agency has named 10 arrested accused and six absconding persons under Sections 120B, 466, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC); Sections 8(c), 21(c), 23(c) and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985; and Sections 17, 18 and 20 of UA (P) Act, 1967 before the NIA Special Court in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
The ten accused named in the case are Machavaram Sudhakar and Durga Purna Govindaraju Vaishali, both residents of Tamil Nadu’s Chennai, Rajkumar Perumal, a resident of Coimbatore, Pradeep Kumar of Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad and Afghan nationals — Mohammad Khan Akhlaqi, Said Mohammad Hussaini, Fardin Amery, Sobhan Aryanfar, Alokozai Mohammad Khan, Murtaza Hakimi.
NIA official said that it has also named six absconding accused — Mohammad Hussain Dad, Mohammad Hassan, Najibullah Khan Khalid, Esmat Ullah Honari, Abdul Hadi Alizada, all of the Afghan nationality, and one Javad Najafi of Iran — in the charge sheet.
The narcotics case relates to the seizure of 2988.21 kgs of narcotic substance (heroin) at Mundra Port by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Gandhidham on September 13, 2021. The heroin was imported by Aashi Trading Company and exported by Kandahar-based Hasan Hussain Ltd through the Bandar Abbas Port in Iran.
The narcotics material was found concealed in import consignment of ‘semi-processed talc stones’ originating from Afghanistan.
The NIA had re-registered the case on October 6 last year.
The official said that during the probe, it was established that the smuggling of narcotics into India was carried out earlier as well by the same set of accused persons, including the offences registered by the DRI Delhi zonal unit involving the seizure of 16.105 kgs of heroin from a warehouse in the national capital and the seizure of 20.250 kg of heroin in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur last year.
These two cases were also subsumed in the instant case as connected offences.
“Mohammad Hussain Dad and Mohammad Hasan Dad of Hasan Hussain Ltd., Kandahar and M Sudhakar, DP Vaishali and Rajkumar Perumal of Aashi Trading Company along with others had entered into a criminal conspiracy to smuggle huge quantity of narcotics to India by concealing in consignments of semi-processed talc,” the official said.
The NIA official said that 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.
“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 official said.