The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed a charge sheet against 16 people in connection with the 3,000-kg heroin seizure by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in Gujarat’s Mundra port last September.
Among those arraigned are 10 accused arrested in the case so far. They have been identified as Machavaram Sudhakar and his wife Durga Vaishali; Rajkumar Perumal; and Afghan nationals Mohammad Akhlaqi, Said Hussaini, Fardin Amery, Sobhan Aryanfar, Alokozai Khan and Murtaza Hakimi. The agency has also named Pradeep Kumar, a resident of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.
Six absconding
The six absconding accused are Hussain Dad, Hassan, Najibullah Khan Khalid, Esmat Ullah Honari and Abdul Hadi Alizada, all Afghan nationals, besides an Iranian national named Javad Najafi.
As alleged, the drugs had been smuggled in on the pretext of a consignment of semi-processed talc imported by Aashi Trading Company (Vijayawada) from Kandahar-based Hasan Hussain Limited, via Bandar Abbas Port in Iran.
In October 2021, the NIA took over the case to probe the suspected terror links. The agency found that the same network had smuggled in two other consignments in the past. Both the cases were registered by the DRI’s Delhi zonal unit, which involved the seizure of 16.10 kg of heroin from a warehouse in Delhi and 20.25 kg of the stuff in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur.
According to the agency, Hussain and Hassan of Hasan Hussain Limited had conspired with others, including M. Sudhakar, Durga Vaishali and Rajkumar Perumal of Aashi Trading Company, to smuggle drugs into India in the garb of exporting semi-processed Talc to India.
Stored in Delhi
The consignment sent in September last year was intercepted, whereas earlier the consignments were received and stored in a Delhi warehouse for further distribution to local contacts in Delhi and Punjab.
The agency alleged that during the probe, links of Hussain and Hassan with some proscribed terror outfits in Pakistan had also come to light.
“The proceeds of drugs trafficking were channelled back to foreign entities through ‘hawala’ channels at the behest of Pakistan-based terror outfits for use in anti-India activities,” the NIA alleged.
