Didn’t know of officer’s role till his arrest: Police

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Thursday told the special NDPS court, during the hearing of bail application of Jammu and Kashmir cadre IPS officer Shaji Mohan, that they did not know that even an IPS officer was allegedly involved in the drug cartel, till his arrest.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Thursday told the special NDPS court, during the hearing of bail application of Jammu and Kashmir cadre IPS officer Shaji Mohan, that they did not know that even an IPS officer was allegedly involved in the drug cartel, till his arrest.

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ATS told the court that though Mohan was arrested in the case but they have still not been able to locate the source of the contraband and further investigations are on.

Mohan had filed a bail application saying that the investigation of the case has been completed and the police had already filed the chargesheet and his custody was not required.

Mohan in his application also said that proper sanction was not taken before his arrest. “Anywhere in the communication with the government the ATS has not mentioned that the IPS officer was involved in the case,” argued his counsel Sirish Gupte.

Gupte also argued that section 50 (conditions under which search of persons shall be conducted) of the NDPS Act was violated when the ATS officers arrested Mohan.

But public prosecutor Vijaylakshmi Nadar argued that had the ATS known an IPS officer would be involved in the case they would have added serious charges to the case and sought prior mandatory sanctions.

Nadar also refuted the contention made by Mohan that no independent panchas were present during the search.

Mohan, who was earlier posted with the NCB’s zonal unit in Chandigarh was arrested on January 25 allegedly with a consignment of 12.8 kg of heroine from Classique Club in Oshiwara. Following information obtained during his interrogation, the ATS raided a flat in Nalanda apartments at Naigaon and allegedly recovered another consignment of 25 kg of narcotics.

The Naigoan flat allegedly belonged to step son of Vicky Oberoi, a fisheries exporter from Oshiwara, who was arrested in the case along with a former constable with Haryana police Rakesh Kumar Khatariya on January 17.

Mohan, Oberoi and Khatariya have been booked for possession of the psychotropic substance and criminal conspiracy.

On May 12, ATS filed a 400-page chargesheet containing statements of about 40 witnesses and four telephonic conversations
between Mohan and others.

The court will continue the hearing of the bail application on Friday.