Afghan fugitive arrested for drug trafficking

The man who “mastered Pashto, Dari and Persian languages” was first arrested in 2014 for allegedly supplying heroin in the city. He absconded from police custody in 2017, while being taken to AIIMS for a backache treatment at the orthopedic department.

The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested a 51-year-old Afghan national from south Delhi’s Hauz Rani for alleged drug trafficking. The man, who was under police radar for the past three years, had been evading arrested by donning wigs and caps and frequently changing his looks, police said.

Identifying the man as Ahmad Jawid, a resident of Panjshir in Afghanistan, police said he had adopted several fake names. (HT PHOTO)

The man who “mastered Pashto, Dari and Persian languages” was first arrested in 2014 for allegedly supplying heroin in the city. He absconded from police custody in 2017, while being taken to AIIMS for a backache treatment at the orthopedic department. Police said the man had also fled to the Indo-Bangladesh border to evade arrest. He had even tried to obtain a fake passport but couldn’t succeed, police said.

Identifying the man as Ahmad Jawid, a resident of Panjshir in Afghanistan, police said he had adopted several fake names such as Mohammad Nabi Rezaie, Khaleelullah Nbi and Jan Mohammad.

Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Kushwah said Jawid was arrested in February, 2014, with four kilograms of heroin. “At the time, he was lodged in Tihar jail.

On September 30, 2017, when Jawid and other undertrials were being taken to AIIMS for treatment, he was referred to orthopedic ward. When police officers got busy with moving some prisoners from the police van to a stretcher, Jawid found an opportunity and escaped,” Kushwah said.

The DCP said that over the years of probe, they received several stray inputs about Jawid but couldn’t trace him. “Last month, we received an input that one Afghan national, who wears a cap and a wig to change his looks, is often found roaming around the areas of Lajpat Nagar, Hauz Rani and Saket. We had inputs that the man has been trying to flee from India for a long time but has failed in procuring passport on forged documents,” Kushwah said.

After questioning at least 50 Afghan nationals at length, on Saturday, we received inputs that the suspect was scheduled to come to District Park in Hauz Rani, the officer said.

“Our team laid a trap and arrested Jawid. He was found wearing a wig and a cap,” he said.

Kushwah said questioning of the arrested man revealed that he hails from Afghanistan and that he had been staying at an acquaintance’s house for the last three years. “He said he had removed all his old contacts from his phone and had cut ties with them. He had also changed his social media accounts and deactivated the old ones through which he used to connect to his clients. He had changed his names and was now working as an agent between the Afghan drug peddlers and Nigerians. He used to earn on a commission-basis,” the DCP said.

Police said Jawid frequently changed cities and had approached different passport offices to get a passport on forged documents but failed. He even tried to escape India through the porous Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh border but couldn’t succeed.

Jawid has a wife, three sons and two daughters in Afghanistan, police said. He is a class eight dropout. He came in contact with one Ghaffur in Afghanistan, who lured him into the racket of drug trafficking and tasked him with smuggling heroin and cocaine into India. He has transported narcotics in various parts of the country before his arrest in 2014, police said.