Mumbai DRI seizes heroin hidden in cooking oil cargo
Darpan News Desk IANS, 08 Oct, 2021 11:25 AM
Mumbai, Oct 8 (IANS) The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence's (DRI) Mumbai unit has seized a consignment of 25 kg heroin concealed in a consignment of groundnut oil at the Nhava Port Trust in Navi Mumbai, and arrested one person, officials said on Friday.
Following a tipoff, the DRI sleuths swooped on the port on October 4 and detected the huge narcotics contraband, valued at Rs 125 crore, among boxes of a cooking oil container arriving from Iran and are now probing the possibility of a bigger drug smuggling racket with international ramifications for India and other countries.
Further investigations led the DRI to businessman Sandeep Thakker in south Mumbai who admitted that he had given his IMPEX Code to a friend, Jayesh Sanghvi in return for a commission of Rs 10,000 on every import order from Iran.
Thakkar claimed that since he had been doing business with Sanghvi since over a decade, he trusted him and shared the IMPEX Code, but he had no knowledge that the latter was allegedly indulging in narcotics smuggling.
Following Thakkar's statement, the DRI nabbed Sanghvi on Wednesday, and charged him under relevant sections of the NDPS Act. He was remanded to DRI custody till October 11, and his past import records are being probed.
Rejecting all opposition to his elevation, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi appointed Navjot Singh Sidhu as the party's new Punjab unit President along with four Working Presidents.
Calling the reports of alleged snooping on prominent citizens using Israeli Pegasus spyware as "baseless", the ruling BJP on Monday said there is not a single shred of evidence so far that links either the central government or the party to this controversy.
Congress MPs from both Houses had met on Sunday afternoon at Rajya Sabha member Pratap Singh Bajwa's residence to discuss the issues related to Punjab and sought an appointment with Gandhi.
Apart from reviewing the security arrangements in the national capital, the Delhi Police have also strengthened the security in and around the Red Fort ahead of the Independence Day.
Police said acting on a specific information, Budgam Police along with the Army's 53 RR and 43 BN of the CRPF arrested one local terrorist linked with proscribed terror outfit LeT and recovered incriminating materials, arms and ammunition including one Chinese pistol, one magazine, eight live pistol rounds from his possession.
As the Pegasus spyware scandal unravelled within and outside Parliament, he termed it a "shocking assault" on India's democratic polity by the Union government, which had compromised the national security with "this blatantly disgraceful act".
