Sangli MD factory bust: ED gets court nod to question Salim Dola’s nephew in jail

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has secured permission from a special PMLA court to question six accused, including Salim Dola’s nephew Mustafa Kubbawala, in connection with its probe into the alleged money-laundering network linked to the drug syndicate investigated in the 2024 Sangli mephedrone factory case

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has secured permission from a special PMLA court to question six accused, including Salim Dola’s nephew Mustafa Kubbawala, in connection with its probe into the alleged money-laundering network linked to the drug syndicate investigated in the 2024 Sangli mephedrone factory case.

Special judge Sharayoo Vivek Sahare on Thursday permitted ED assistant director Shailendra Kumar Gupta, enforcement officer Atul Sharma and assistant enforcement officer Pradeep Kumar to enter Arthur Road jail and record the statements of Kubbawala, Pravin Shinde, Brijesh Kanjibhai Moradiya, Sajid Mohammad Asif Sheikh, Eijaz Ali Imdad Ali Ansari and Adil Imtiaz Vohra under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The permission comes four months after Dola was brought back to India from Turkiye. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in coordination with Indian and international agencies, secured the return of the wanted drug trafficker on April 28 after he was detained in Istanbul. The NCB said Dola had established a transnational drug-trafficking syndicate spanning several countries and was wanted in multiple narcotics cases in India.

The Mumbai Crime Branch’s investigation into the Sangli network had traced the supply chain from Mumbai to Sangli and subsequently to Surat, the UAE and Turkiye. Investigators alleged that Dola was running the network from abroad through associates. His son Taher and nephew Kubbawala were earlier deported from the UAE to India in 2025.

The Sangli case began with a February 2024 seizure of 641 grams of mephedrone, or MD, from a woman in Mumbai. Her interrogation led investigators to another accused from whom about 3 kg of MD was recovered. Further investigation led police to a clandestine manufacturing facility in Sangli district, where 122.5 kg of MD was seized.

A Bombay High Court order in April recorded that 15 accused had been arrested in the case and that the investigation had extended beyond Maharashtra and internationally. While rejecting Vohra’s bail plea, the court said the material before it, including WhatsApp messages and voice clips, prima facie indicated an organised narcotics syndicate involved in the manufacture, trafficking and sale of narcotic drugs.

Investigators have alleged that Kubbawala was a key link in the network and was involved in the supply of raw materials used to manufacture mephedrone. Mumbai Police had described him as one of the masterminds of the operation after he was deported from the UAE in July 2025.

The ED subsequently entered the probe to trace the financial trail of the alleged syndicate. In June this year, the agency conducted searches at 21 locations across Mumbai, Surat, Ankleshwar and Rajkot, describing the investigation as relating to a “trans-national organised narcotics trafficking syndicate” allegedly operated by Dola and his associates.

According to the ED, the investigation covers the procurement of precursor chemicals, manufacture and distribution of MD, international trafficking, hawala transactions and the alleged acquisition of properties using proceeds of crime. The agency said its June searches resulted in the seizure or freezing of assets worth about ₹1.33 crore, including cash, foreign currency, gold and bank balances.

The court has directed the prison authorities to facilitate the statement-recording exercise from August 29 to September 11, between 9am and 5pm, and allowed the ED officers to carry laptops, pen drives, a printer, mobile phones and other necessary equipment into the prison.