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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the investigation of the case where 2,988.21 kgs of heroin worth Rs 9000 crore from the Mundra Port, Gujarat, were seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) last month. The port is managed by the Adani Group.

The DRI last month had recovered narcotics from two containers from a cargo consignment that arrived at Mundra port. As per reports, the heroin consignment had originated from Afghanistan and it was dispatched as a consignment of semi-processed talc stones. The consignment had arrived from Bandar Abbas Port, Iran.

NIA takes over case of seizure of 2988.21 kgs of narcotics at Mundra Port, Gujarat pic.twitter.com/omr6xe3jaR

— NIA India (@NIA_India) October 6, 2021

In the wake of the order of the Ministry of Home Affairs; the NIA on Wednesday lodged an FIR. NIA has invoked sections 120 B of IPC, section 8 (C), 23 of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) and section 17, 18 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 against accused Machavaram Sudhakaran, his wife Durga PV Govindaraju, Rajkumar P and others.

Since the narcotics substance originated from Afghanistan now ruled by the radical Islamic terrorist outfit Taliban, the Centre and the probe agency have not ruled out it as a case of narco-terrorism. Due to the seriousness of the case and its international ramification, the NIA has been assigned the investigation. It is notable here that the Taliban raises most of its funds by selling opium.

Vijaywada-based trading compnay

Chennai-based Sudhakaran and Govindaraju own the company which was shipping heroin. Govindaraju owns M/s Aashi Trading Company, registered at Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. It was importing the talc from a firm called M/s Hasan Husain Ltd. Another accused Rajkumar, from Coimbatore, worked in Iran. He was coordinating with foreign suppliers.

So far nine suspects have been arrested including four Afghanis and one Uzbek national. After the seizure, the DRI carried raids in Delhi, Noida (UP), Chennai, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, Mandvi, Gandhidham and Vijaywada. This led to the recovery of 16.1 kg of heroin from a warehouse in Delhi, 10.2 kg powder suspected to be cocaine and 11 kg of substance suspected to be heroin from a residential place in Noida.

Since the port is managed by the Adani Group, Congress and its ecosystem started spreading rumours and accuse the chairman of the group, Gautam Adani, of using the port to smuggle the contraband. Adani Group had to issue a clarification that they only manage the port and checking cargo is not under their authority.