Centre roped in NIA at Amarinder’s bidding

Sunday, 28/07/2019

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CHANDIGARH: It was at the insistence of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh that the Central government decided to hand over the biggest ever heroin haul (532 kg) case to National Investigation Agency (NIA). The contraband was seized on June 26 at the Attari international check post from a truck that transported goods from Pakistan.

The heroin was camouflaged in 600 bags of rock salt and the international value of the drug was pegged at ₹2,700 crore.

As per information, after the Punjab Police and customs department officials interrogated “masterminds” Gurpinder Singh from Amritsar and Tariq Ahmed Lone from Handwara in Jammu and Kashmir, startling revelations came to the fore. Investigations revealed involvement of a major international drug cartel based in Lahore of Pakistan that in connivance with its contacts in Indian trading companies was smuggling drugs into India using the Attari trade route.

The chief minister was apprised by Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta about the “startling reveby lations” made by the accused in which it emerged that around six consignments of rock salt have entered India on behalf of Tariq Ahmed Lone alone and these consignments are suspected to have brought “big supplies” of hard drugs.

Amarinder, the officials handing the issue said, immediately wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah, requesting him to probe the matter through a central agency having the powers to carry out investigations across India.

The police probe also revealed that the drug smuggling racket was also being facilitated by a network of hawala operators based in India and other parts of the world.

Amarinder’s letter was backed joint feedback given to the home ministry about the sensitivity of the case by customs, Punjab Police, and different central agencies, including Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

The case had taken an interesting turn on July 21, when 29-yearold Amrtistar-based prime accused Gurpinder died in judicial custody under mysterious circumstances.

The Centre also acknowledged Amarinder’s concern immediately and within two days, decided to hand over the case to the NIA by admitting it as a case of “narco-terrorism”.

It’s the rarest-of-rare case in which the Centre handed over the probe to NIA — the central agency that specialises in probing terror cases.

“Whereas this is a case of narco-terrorism having national and international implications, that requires indepth investigation as too the funding of different terror groups through the proceeds of narco-consigned being smuggled from across the international border which needs to be investigated to unearth international narco terror link,” reads the July 24 order.