E-Paper
2022 Attari border drug haul:NIA arrest third accused from Amritsar airport
NIA arrests key accused in heroin recovery case at Attari border. Accused Amritpal Singh is believed to be involved in drug laundering and cash handling.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday said a key accused wanted in connection with the recovery of 102 kg heroin at the Attari border in April 2022 has been arrested.
Narcotics from Afghanistan via the India-Pak border were seized in two instalments on April 24 and 26, 2022. NIA spokesperson in a statement on Friday said that accused Amritpal Singh, a resident of Tarn Taran district, has been arrested. He is the third person to be arrested in the case.
The probe so far indicates that Amritpal was the handler of cash and laundered drug proceeds through banking and hawala channels.
The seizures were made by the Indian Customs when the drugs arrived in the country from Afghanistan via ICP Attari. The drugs had been concealed in a consignment of Licorice roots (Mulethi).
Amritpal was detained by immigration officers on December 12, while trying to flee to Dubai from the Amritsar International Airport.
The immigration officers detained him on the basis of the orders passed by the competent authority on December 7, in view of the lookout circular (LOC) issued against him by the NIA.
Amritpal’s role in the conspiracy relating to the international drug nexus came to light following the examination of associates of the various persons accused in the case and also from several incriminating transactions done by Amritpal in the bank accounts of the other accused.
NIA investigations have revealed Amritpal to have been involved in the larger conspiracy hatched by a global drug cartel.
As part of the drug network, he was the conduit for the circulation of drug money to various distributors in India as well as the main accused settled abroad. Amritpal used his travel agency and money transfer business to transfer the proceeds of drugs, as per the investigations.
Based on the disclosures of the associates of the accused, the NIA had, on October 22, 2023, conducted searches at Amritpal’s residential and official premises, leading to the recovery of cash amounting to ₹1.34 crore, as proceeds of narcotics.
It was found that Amritpal had, at the behest of Dubai-based absconding accused Shahid Ahmed alias Qazi Abdul Wadood, transferred huge amounts generated as proceeds of drugs into his (Shahid’s) bank accounts and also to the latter’s India-based associate Razi Haider Zaidi and some others. On November 8, 2023, a day after the Competent Authority issued the freeze order, the NIA froze Singh’s seized cash amount as ‘illegally acquired property’.
Investigations by the NIA, after it took over the case on the directions of the ministry of home affairs (MHA), have so far revealed that the drug consignment in question was sent to India by Afghanistan-based co-accused Nazir Ahmed Qani, a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif, on the directions of Shahid Ahmed. The same was supposed to be delivered to the accused Razi Haider Zaidi in India for distribution in various parts of the country for monetary gains.
NIA had, on December 16, 2022, filed a chargesheet against four accused Shahid Ahmed alias Qazi Abdul Wadood, Nazir Ahmed Qani, Razi Haider Zaidi and Vipin Mittal, in the case. While Mittal and Zaidi, both residents of Delhi, were arrested in August 2022, Shahid and Nazir, who are based out of India, have been declared absconding in the case.
