Two former NCB officers booked for aiding accused’s discharge

The CBI’s case against the former NCB officers relates to charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arising out of the cocaine seizure

MUMBAI: Two former officers of the Narcotics Control of Bureau (NCB) – a former intelligence officer and a former special public prosecutor – have been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for alleged misconduct, which led to the discharge of three individuals in a money laundering case relating to the seizure of 200kg of cocaine at the Nhava Sheva port in Navi Mumbai in 2006.

Two former NCB officers booked for aiding accused’s discharge

The officers booked are the NCB’s former intelligence officer K Babu and its former special public prosecutor in the office of the zonal director, NCB (Mumbai), A Sarpande. The three individuals discharged are businessmen U Bangur, O Nagoja and V Thorve. All three had been discharged by a special NDPS court in 2015-19 on the basis of a letter written by Babu and factually incorrect legal opinion provided by Sarpande.

The CBI’s case against the former NCB officers relates to charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arising out of the cocaine seizure.

The case was registered on April 10 after the CBI conducted a preliminary enquiry into the misconduct allegations, based on a 2025 reference from NCB director-genral Anurag Garg, CBI officials said.

In his letter, Babu wrote that “as on date no litigation is pending in the present case before any court of law”. Not only was this factually incorrect, the letter was written without approval from any superior officer.

After the discharge of the three accused in 2015-19, the accused prosecutor A Sarpande in September 2019, gave legal opinion recommending against filing appeals against Bangur and Thorve’s discharge, saying, “Till date neither any revision nor application for condonation of delay in discharge of A1 [Nagoja] as admitted/disposed and that both these applications were pending for admission before the Hon ‘ble High Court.” However, this was factually incorrect.

The FIR also alleges that Bangur, in connivance with Babu, requested the NCB on May 12, 2022, for an update on the NCB case. Though Babu was not the case’s investigating officer, he allegedly sought the legal opinion of Sarpande, who again provided incorrect information.

He had said, “We have not filed any revision application challenging discharge of the accused. Therefore, in my opinion, it is not fit for challenging those order [s] before any court.”

The FIR said Babu’s letter was allegedly used by Bangur in the PMLA proceedings and he and the other accused were discharged by the PMLA court on June 14, 2023.