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500-kg cocaine smuggling: Punjab-origin woman, husband jailed for 33 years in UK
Arti Dhir (59), whose family hails from Gurdaspur in Punjab, and her 35-year-old husband Kavaljitsinh Raijada, an Indian national from Keshod, Gujarat, who live in Hanwell, were convicted of exporting 514-kg cocaine to Australia.
A Punjab-origin woman and her husband in the UK, whose extradition was sought by India on charges of the murder of their adopted son in Gujarat, has been sentenced to 33 years in prison each after being convicted of exporting more than half-a-tonne of cocaine to Australia using commercial planes.
Arti Dhir (59), whose family hails from Gurdaspur in Punjab, and her 35-year-old husband Kavaljitsinh Raijada, an Indian national from Keshod, Gujarat, who live in Hanwell, were convicted of exporting 514-kg cocaine to Australia.
The Australian Border Force intercepted the cocaine upon its arrival in Sydney in May 2021, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said in a statement on Monday.
The couple was behind a front company that had sent the drugs by plane under a cover load of metal toolboxes, according to the investigation.
Dhir and Raijada denied exporting cocaine to Australia and money laundering. They were convicted of 12 counts of exportation and 18 counts of money laundering by a jury following a trial at Southwark Crown court on Monday.
They were sentenced at the same court on Tuesday.
The drugs exported by the two had been shipped via a commercial flight from the UK and consisted of six metal toolboxes.
Officers traced the consignment back to Dhir and Raijada, who had set up a front company called Viefly Freight Services with the sole purpose of smuggling drugs.
Both defendants had been directors of the company at different points since its incorporation in June 2015.
Raijada’s fingerprints were found on the plastic wrappings of the metal toolboxes containing the seized drugs, while receipts for the order of the toolboxes, worth 2,855 pounds were discovered at the couple’s home.
The NCA’s case was that there had been 37 consignments sent to Australia since June 2019, of which 22 were dummy runs and 15 contained cocaine.
Dhir had been employed by a flight services company at Heathrow from March 2003 until October 2016.
Raijada worked at the same company from March 2014 to December 2016.
NCA investigators believe that their knowledge of the airport freight procedures was used to cover their criminal activities.
Dhir and Raijada were arrested at their home in Hanwell on June 21, 2021 and officers seized 5,000 pounds worth of gold-plated silver bars, 13,000 pounds inside the home and found 60,000 pounds in cash in a safety deposit box.
Following further investigations, the pair were arrested again in February 2023.
Were booked for murder of adopted son in Gujarat
The murder allegations against the couple relate to their 11-year-old adopted son Gopal Sejani and his brother-in-law Harsukhbhai Kardani in February 2017 in India.
An investigation by the Gujarat police claimed that the accused had hatched a plot to adopt Gopal and then insure him for around ₹1.3 crore before staging his kidnapping and murder in India to split the life insurance payout.
India’s extradition request for the duo had been turned down by Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London in July 2019 on human rights grounds under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In February 2020, India’s appeal in the high court in London was also dismissed.