Mumbai cops seize drugs worth Rs 1,403 cr from Palghar town
Darpan News Desk IANS, 04 Aug, 2022 10:51 AM
Mumbai, Aug 4 (IANS) In a major haul, the Mumbai Police' Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) has made drug seizures worth a stupendous Rs 1,403-crore from Nala Sopara town in Palghar district, which borders Gujarat state, officials said here on Thursday.
The ANC nabbed a person with the 702 kgs of Mephedrone from Sitaram Building in Chakradhar Nagar area of Nala Sopara on Wednesday night worth a total of Rs 1,403.5 crore, and arrested two suppliers.
The latest drugs haul became possible after the interrogation of two other drug peddlers plus a woman, who were nabbed by the ANC on March 29 from Govandi in north-east Mumbai.
Of the arrested trio, one was caught with 250 gms Mephedrone valued at Rs 37.50 lakh and the other with 2.70 kgs of Mephedrone worth Rs 4.14 crore in the market.
After sustained interrogation, the woman accused revealed details on their two associates of whom one was picked up late on Tuesday (August 2) and the fifth was caught with the narcotics consignment on Wednesday (August 3).
The ANC said that among the accused are a couple of qualified chemists with knowledge of organic chemistry required to produce the Mephedrone drugs which are much in demand.
The woman accused along with the others kept their identity secret and sought clients on social media and supplied the drugs to their clientele in different parts of Mumbai and surroundings.
The teams which cracked one of the biggest narcotics supply racket comprised police officials like Inspector Sandeep Kale, guided by ACP Savlaram Agavale, DCP Datta Nalawade, Additional Police Commissioner Viresh Prabhu, Joint Police Commissioner Suhas Warke and Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar along with the field teams of ANC Worli Unit.
While three accused arrested in March are in judicial custody, the two others nabbed on Wednesday have been sent to police custody, said Kale.
Further investigations are on in the sensational case to trace the source of the drugs, other hidden players and their links with the narcotics mafia after the seizure of the drugs totally valued at Rs 1,408-crore in two inter-connected operations carried out in four months.
The container, which was loaded from the Jebel Ali port in the UAE, was booked by an importer from Malerkotla in Punjab. The DGP said that as the link of the container has been established with Punjab, the consignment seems to be routed to some other place via Punjab.
In March, the top court had reserved the order on sentence to Mallya, who was found guilty of contempt in 2017 for disobeying court's order for not disclosing full particulars of assets in case between the SBI and Kingfisher Airlines.
Besides Bains, Paramjit Singh Pamma, Jasbir Kaur, Baljinder Kaur and Pardeep Kumara surrendered in the court of Judicial Magistrate Harsimranjit Kaur. Two other accused -- Karamjit Singh Bains and Sukhchain Singh -- are in judicial custody. All seven were declared proclaimed offender on April 12.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea by Punjab BJP leader Jagjit Singh seeking CBI probe into the cold-blooded murder of famous Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala. A bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Abhay Oka said the case should not be given a political colour and Punjab is supposed to take care of it and they are taking care of the matter.
The police have recovered 5.57 kg heroin, 17 kg opium, 25 kg ganja, seven quintals poppy husk, 2.25 lakh intoxicant pills and capsules, etc, after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas.
The authorities were directed to commence classes in Medical Colleges of Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Sangrur from next year. Free medicines should be provided to patients in the hospitals of the medical colleges as early as possible, he added.
