Dawood aide, drug trafficker Salim Dola remanded in NCB custody till May 8

Dola (59) was arrested in Turkiye on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice issued on India’s request in March 2024

A metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday remanded alleged drug trafficker Salim Ismail Dola, a close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim, in the custody of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) till May 8 in a 2023 drugs seizure case.

Mohammad Salim Dola, centre, a close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim and a notorious drug trafficker, at the NCB office. (PTI photo)

The agency had produced Dola, 58, before a special NDPS court, but special judge A M Bhandarwar refused to take up the remand plea, saying that the first remand after the execution of the non-bailable warrant has to be secured from a magistrate court.

Dola’ transit remand, issued by a Delhi court on Tuesday, was not considered as first remand and hence, the judge said, he was supposed to be presented before a magistrate first.

“Transit remand won’t be considered as a first remand and it is expected to produce the accused before the Magistrate having jurisdiction,” the judge reasoned.

Subsequently, Dola was produced before additional chief judicial magistrate SK Zanwar, who sent him to the NCB’s custody till May 8, highlighting that the custody was required to unearth the proceeds of the crime.

Holding that “20 kg of MD was seized from co-accused Faizal Sheikh i.e. more than commercial quality”, and that Sheikh had “voluntarily confessed” that “he regularly procured MD about 40kg monthly from the current accused,” the magistrate sent Dola to NCB custody.

Dola was on Tuesday brought to India from Turkiye under ‘Operation Global-Hunt’, in a development Union home minister Amit Shah termed as a “major breakthrough”.

Dola was detained by the Turkish Intelligence Agency and the Beylikduzu police in Istanbul on April 25 following inputs from Indian agencies and based on a pending Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN) against him.