Mundra port drug haul case: Accused held from Delhi remanded in NIA custody till Oct 7

Ahmedabad: A man arrested from Delhi by the National Investigation Agency recently was on Friday remanded in the custody of the probe agency in connection with the 2021 Mundra Port drug haul case by a special court here.

The court of special judge Subhada Baxi remanded Sushant Sarkar in NIA custody till October 7, though the probe agency had sought 20-day custody.

The number of people arrested in connection with September 2021 haul of 2,988 kilograms of drugs worth Rs 21,000 crore from Mundra Port in Gujarat’s Kutch district has risen to 26.

In his submission before the court, Amit Nair, appearing for NIA, said Sarkar had imported heroin-loaded semi-processed talc from Afghanistan to a port in West Bengal in November 2020 and then sent it to a firm owned by Prince Sharma and promoted by Kabir Talwar, both of whom were arrested by NIA earlier.

Wanted Afghan national Najibullah Khalid played a role in this case, Nair said, adding that the consignment was kept in a warehouse in Delhi and a sample from it was found to be heroin.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had seized 2988.21 kilograms of heroin from Mundra Port on September 13 2021. The consignment, concealed as semi-processed talc, was exported from Kandahar in Afghanistan through the Bandar Abbas Port of Iran.

The case probe was handed over to the NIA, which found a similar consignment was shipped in June 2021 through Mundra port involving the same supplier and receiver. The two offences were connected and are being investigated together. The NIA had recently filed a charge sheet against 16 people, including 11 Afghan nationals and an Iranian citizen, six of whom are shown as wanted. They have been charged under the Indian Penal Code, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.