AMRITPAL IDENTIFIED AS CONDUIT FOR ‘PROCEEDS OF DRUGS’ , DETAINED WHILE TRYING TO FLEE TO DUBAI
New Delhi, 16th Dec : In a major breakthrough in the Attari border heroin seizure case involving smuggling of over 102 kgs of the narcotics from Afghanistan via the India-Pak border in April 2022, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a key absconding accused, Amritpal Singh.
The case pertains to recovery and seizure of a total of 102.784 kgs of heroin, valued at approx. Rs. 700 crores. The seizures were made in two instalments, on 24th and 26th April 2022, by the Indian Customs when the drugs arrived in the country from Afghanistan via ICP Attari, Amritsar. The drugs had been concealed in a consignment of Licorice roots (Mulethi).
Amritpal Singh was detained by Immigration officers on 12th December 2023, while trying to flee to Dubai from the Amritsar International Airport. The immigration officers detained him on the basis of the orders passed by the competent authority on 7th December, 2023, in view of the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against by him by the NIA.
Amritpal’s role in the conspiracy relating to the international drug nexus came to light following the examination of associates of the various persons accused in the case, and also from several incriminating transactions done by Amritpal Singh in the bank accounts of the other accused.
NIA investigations have revealed Amritpal Singh to have been involved in the larger conspiracy hatched by an global drug cartel. As part of the drug network, he was the conduit for circulation of drug money to various distributors in India as well as the main accused settled abroad. Amritpal Singh used his travel agency and money transfer business to transfer the proceeds of drugs, as per the investigations.
Based on the disclosures of the associates of the accused, the NIA had, on 22nd October 2023, conducted searches at Amritpal’s residential and official premises, leading to the recovery of cash amounting to Rs. 1,34,12,000, as proceeds of narcotics. It was found that Amritpal Singh had, at the behest of Dubai-based absconding accused Shahid Ahmed@Qazi Abdul Wadood, transferred huge amounts generated as proceeds of drugs into his (Shahid’s) bank accounts and also to the latter’s India-based associate Razi Haider Zaidi and some others. On 08th November, 2023, a day after the Competent Authority issued the freeze order, the NIA froze Amritpal’s seized cash amount as ‘illegally acquired property’ u/s 68F(1) of the NDPS Act, 1985.
Investigations by the NIA, after it took over the case on the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), have so far revealed that the drug consignment in question was sent to India by Afghanistan based co-accused Nazir Ahmed Qani, a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif, on the directions of Shahid Ahmed. The same was supposed to be delivered to accused Razi Haider Zaidi in India, for distribution in various parts of the country for monetary gains.
NIA had, on 16th December 2022, filed a Chargesheet against four accused, Shahid Ahmed @ Qazi Abdul Wadood, Nazir Ahmed Qani, Razi Haider Zaidi and Vipin Mittal, in the case. While Mittal and Zaidi, both residents of Delhi, were arrested in August 2022, Shahid and Nazir, who are based out of India, have been declared absconding in the case.
