Cops bust inter-state drug racket; 3 held, 1.5-cr charas seized

The accused are identified as Shahnawaj Shabir Rajput, 34, Shoaib Shabir Rajput, 32, and Sharif Shakil Shaikh, 37. While the Rajput brothers are a resident of Sewri, Shaikh is a resident of Wadala

Mumbai: The Anti Narcotic Cell (ANC) of the crime branch arrested three drug traffickers, including two brothers, of a gang and seized around 4.5 kg of high-quality charas worth ₹1.5 crore from them.

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The accused are identified as Shahnawaj Shabir Rajput, 34, Shoaib Shabir Rajput, 32, and Sharif Shakil Shaikh, 37. While the Rajput brothers are a resident of Sewri, Shaikh is a resident of Wadala.

“We recovered around 495 grams of charas from Shaikh and after questioning him, the Rajput brothers’ link was found. A police team immediately raided Rajput’s house and seized around 4 kg of charas,” deputy commissioner of police Prakash Jadhav, ANC, said.

During the interrogation, the trio revealed that the contraband was brought from the Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border and the Rajput brothers were supplying and distributing charas to peddlers in eastern and southern Mumbai, he said.

The samples were sent to the forensic science laboratory for chemical analysis. The trio was produced before a metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday and was remanded in police custody till September 27.

“We are scrutinising call data records as well as bank details of the accused to get more leads about other suspects involved in the case. We have got details of a few drug peddlers and suspect that they were helping Rajputs to distribute contraband to the consumers, and we will question them,” said another officer of the ANC.