The NIA on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the proceeds of the 2,988-kg heroin consignment that was intercepted in Mundra port by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in September 2021 were “used…for funding terrorist activities of” the banned Pakistan-based “Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)”.
The agency also said a protected witness in the case had deposed that Lateef Rather, a slain operative of LeT proxy The Resistance Front (TRF), had told him that one “Md. Iqbal Awan and Afghanistan/Pakistan based drug smugglers in December 2021… discussed… Kashmir issue, Article 370” with him… “Lateef directed representative code name Malik to Delhi/Haryana border for collection of (`) 10 and 15 lakh” from one Haryana man… “the money was used for procuring weapons and ammunition for new recruits of Lashkar-e-Taiba”, the agency told the court.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appearing for the NIA conveyed this to a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N K Singh while opposing the bail plea of a key accused, Harpreet Singh Talwar alias Kabir Talwar of Delhi, in the case. The law officer said the narcotics was trafficked to India “disguised as legal imports in the form of semi-processed talc stones and bituminous coal” and “the proceeds… were sent back to the consignors, who used these funds for funding terrorist activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)”.
She said “the legal export-import channel was used after finding loopholes and circumventing the system”. The ASG said a total of six consignments were imported to India, sent by the same consignors from Afghanistan. The sixth was intercepted at Mundra port. “The Narco-traffickers were located in Afghanistan and were sending heroin via Iran and Pakistan to India (with help of ISI and Iranian middle men),” Bhati said.
“…a large consignment of 2,988.21 kgs of Heroin was brought from Afghanistan via Bandar Abbas, Iran and was imported to India in the name of Aashi Trading Company and the same was intercepted… we have 12 wanted accused persons based in Dubai, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan,” she said.
The ASG said one of the key witnesses in the case, a retired customs official, was found dead under suspicious circumstances. “He is the customs official who cleared the consignment in Kolkata. There was money received in his account. When we examined him… he said he would… make a statement and in the night, he was found dead. That aspect we are still going to investigate because at that time he was not cooperating.”
The counsel appearing for Talwar, however, said the accused “was in jail at that time. They themselves had said it’s suicide… Sometimes witnesses do commit suicide when they are put under pressure”.
Investigations have already revealed the mastermind of the ‘narco-terror’ is Pakistan’s ISI and Pakistan-backed banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba. As such considering the totality of the matter in the respectful submission of the petitioner bail ought not be granted in the instant matter so as to prevent miscarriage of justice and obfuscation of the trial of instant international conspiracy of heinous nature, the NIA said.
Bhati also referred to Talwar receiving consignments of perfumes and dates, adding, “it’s the case of the prosecution that the perfumes and the dates are actually the consideration he is getting in kind for carrying out this business, for using this business channel”. The ASG urged the court to keep in mind the magnitude of the crime and said “is the biggest the country has ever seen… the international price of this is Rs 21,000 crore. That is the amount of money that is being funnelled into the terrorist organisations”.
Senior Advocate C A Sundaram who, too, represented Talwar said there was no evidence to link him to the charges of heroin smuggling.
