Drug trafficking case: HC allows NCB to probe beyond 180 days

The Delhi High Court has allowed the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) to investigate a case beyond the stipulated period of 180 days under the NDPS Act against an NRI accused of money laundering and drug trafficking.

The Delhi High Court has allowed the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) to investigate a case beyond the stipulated period of 180 days under the NDPS Act against an NRI accused of money laundering and drug trafficking.

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"These are those cases where investigation was of a complex nature and despite sincere efforts the agency could not complete the investigation...the collection of documents was required to be done from various countries where the operation of the accused were extended," Justice Shiv Narayan Dhingra said in a recent judgement.

He set aside a special court's June 24 order dismissing the NCB's plea for extension of time to complete the investigation against Naresh Kumar Jain, based in Dubai.

The special court had dismissed agency's plea after it could not complete the probe within the stipulated time period, as it was yet to receive documents from countries like Italy, the UK, USA and UAE.

The High Court said that looking into the complex nature of such international rackets the government had brought amendment in the NDPS Act and increased the time to complete the probe from 90 days to 180 days.

"The reputation of India abroad is not such that its requests are acceded by the foreign governments immediately. Moreover, other countries have their own legal system and mere issuance of Letter Rogatory does not result in handing over the documents...," said Justice Dhingra.

According to NCB, Jain was involved in various cases of drug trafficking and money laundering. He absconded from Dubai and entered India through Nepal illegally, it claimed.

NCB counsel Rajesh Manchanda argued that the accused had transferred money from a Dubai bank to accounts in the US. The probe agency of the UK has also found that Jain has links with drug traffickers and the money was laundered to various European countries, he said.