E-Paper
Handwara narco-terrorism case: ₹91 lakh recovered from Samba village
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) recovered ₹91 lakh from an agricultural field in Ramgarh sector of Samba district, barely 5km from the Indo-Pak international border, on Friday
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) recovered ₹91 lakh from an agricultural field in Ramgarh sector of Samba district, barely 5km from the Indo-Pak international border, on Friday.
A police officer said, “The cash was recovered from a pit in an agricultural field in Gurwal village on the disclosure of one Ramesh Kumar, who had been recently arrested in a narco-terrorism case,” said a senior police officer.
On March 1, the NIA had arrested four drug traffickers — Altaf Ahmed Shah of Dangherpora,Ganderbal; Showkat Ahmad Parray of Wangipora Sumbal, Bandipora; Mudasir Ahmad Dar of Shopian and Amin Allaie alias Hilal Mir of Sangam, Anantnag in the Handwara narco-terrorism case. The police had seized 21kg heroin and ₹1,35,89,850 from the drug traffickers. Kumar was also arrested in the same case.
“Investigation revealed that Kumar had received the cash proceeds of drugs from narco-smugglers based in Kashmir valley for himself as well as for further channelisation to different terrorist entities. The investigation in the case continues,” the statement said.
The case was initially registered on June 11, 2020 at the Handwara police station in Kupwara district. On June 11, while checking vehicles at Kairo Bridge, Handwara, police had checked a vehicle at a check post and during the search ₹20 lakh along with 2kg heroin was recovered from the car of one Abdul Momin Peer.
A chargesheet was filed on December 5, 2020, against six accused in the NIA special court in Jammu. “Peer’s sustained interrogation had led the NIA to unearth the drug syndicate operating on the directions of handlers in Pakistan,” said the officer.
Investigation revealed that the accused drug peddlers were involved in cross-border smuggling of heroin in huge quantities from Pakistan and were supplying the same in J&K and other parts of the country.
They were also in regular communication with the operatives of proscribed terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) and Hizbul-Mujahideen (HM), using encrypted chat platforms.
The proceeds of sale were being used to finance the activities of proscribed terror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul.
(With inputs from Srinagar)
