The Supreme Court moves the drug hauling case from Hoshiarpur to Gujarat at the Mundra port
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court moved a heroin smuggling case from a Hoshiarpur court to a special NIA court in Ahmedabad. The case is purportedly connected to the historic narcotics seizure at the Mundra port.
Officers from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) discovered 2,988 kg of heroin in a shipment of talc powder at the Mundra port in September 2021. Afghanistan was the country of origin of the shipment.
While the second case is still pending before a special court in Saket, the National Capital, the DRI has filed a case in Gujarat. The Hoshiarpur court of the Additional Sessions Judge is now hearing the third case.
On December 27, 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs gave the National Investigation Agency (NIA) control over the investigation into the narcotics haul. For a fair trial, the NIA desired that the Punjab case be moved to Ahmedabad.
Nine people were listed as defendants in the Punjab Police investigation, and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act called for a trial to begin in a Hoshiarpur special court. The charge sheet that the NIA presented to the Ahmedabad court includes a list of all the defendants who were detained in Punjab and Delhi.
The NIA’s plea was granted by a bench consisting of Justices CT Ravikumar and Rajesh Bindal, who noted the arguments made by Additional Solicitor General SV Raju that the investigative agency was deprived of its investigation in the instances that were related.
The accused’s arguments that the trial in one of the instances shouldn’t be moved to Gujarat were dismissed by the Bench.
