Noida: Afghan man carrying heroine capsules in stomach grilled by cops

Noori told the police that since he couldn’t meet his receiver at the IGI airport on February 25, he checked into a hotel in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar didn’t eat or drink for the next two days

The Afghan national, who was found to have stuffed 110 grams of heroine in seven capsules in his stomach, was interrogated by police on Friday on the hospital premises. However, the police could not take him into custody, fearing his condition might deteriorate.

Doctors found 110 grams of heroine in seven capsules stuffed inside the stomach of 55-year-old Abdul Ali Noori (Sunil Ghosh/HT PHOTO)

The 55-year-old Abdul Ali Noori was admitted to Metro Hospital on February 28 with pain in the abdomen and loss of consciousness.

“Though we had planned to take Abdul in our custody today evening, but we could not out of concern for his health. We will take him into custody on Saturday,” said Vinay Prakash Singh, the station house officer of Sector 24 police station.

Tests have confirmed that the white powder in the capsules wrapped in polythene packs, which were surgically removed from his abdomen, was heroin, police said on Friday.

After conducting CT scan, the doctors found ‘foreign bodies’ in his abdomen which led them to conduct a surgery on the patient. He was operated on March 2 and some plastic packets containing white powder were surgically removed from his abdomen.

Read I Afghan national admitted to Noida hospital has stomachful of heroin capsules

Preliminary interrogation by the police was carried out after he gained consciousness on Friday. “He landed at the IGI airport on February 25, where he was to meet the ‘receiver’. But the receiver did not turn up at the airport. He then checked into a hotel in Malviya Nagar, Delhi,” investigating officer Vinay Prakash Singh said.

Singh said, “Since Noori could not meet the ‘receiver’ in Delhi, he had to keep the packets in his stomach for the next two days without eating or drinking anything. On February 28, Noori was admitted to the hospital with severe pain in abdomen and loss of consciousness.”

A total of seven capsules wrapped in plastic pouches, each about five centimetres in size, were removed from his stomach.

Officers from Local Intelligence Unit (LIU), police and the Intelligence Bureau also questioned Noori on Friday. He was grilled with the help of an interpreter as he spoke in his local dialect.

Singh said further interrogation will be carried out once Noori is taken into custody. “He only replied in ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and we couldn’t gather much details from him,” the police officer said.

Noori and his son, Abdul Wali Noori, who accompanied him to India, were booked under section 18/22 of Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act.

During the initial probe, it was found that the two mobile phone numbers on which Noori had spoken, were registered at Jaitpur in Delhi. However, it was found that the numbers were registered on fake addresses. Police are trying to get more details about these two telephone numbers.