Drugs seized from HP men: Mumbai ATS to probe terror angle

Last week, GRP personnel had arrested Himachal Pradesh residents and seized 34.4kg of hashish (charas) from them

The drug trafficking racket case busted by the Pune unit of the Government Railway police (GRP) last week has been transferred to the anti-terrorism squad (ATS), Mumbai, for further probe.

A team from Mumbai ATS has gone to Himachal Pradesh to probe if the racket was linked to any terror activity and also to track the kingpins behind it. (HT FILE)

Superintendent of police (ATS) Rajkumar Shinde will monitor the investigation. A team from Mumbai ATS has gone to Himachal Pradesh to probe if the racket was linked to any terror activity and also to track the kingpins behind it.

Last week, GRP personnel had arrested Himachal Pradesh residents – Lalitkumar Dayanand Sharma, 50, who is a travel firm owner, and Kaulsingh Rupsingh, 41, a driver – and seized 34.4kg of hashish (charas) from them. The Pune unit of GRP had made the arrests after they received a tip-off about two men travelling from Delhi to Pune by train with drugs. The police laid a trap and arrested the duo near Pune railway station with the hashish.

“The case is transferred to ATS for further probe, especially to find out the source of the drugs, the people behind the racket, their distribution network and more importantly, if the gang had any links with terror groups,” said an ATS officer. Initial probe has revealed that most of the seized drugs were to be distributed in Mumbai, while 5kg each was to be transported to Bengaluru and Goa, 2kg was meant to be supplied in Pune.