Mumbai: A peon working with leading Bollywood production house, Balaji Telefilms Private Limited, was apprehended today for drug peddling by the Narcotics Control Bureau. The peon, Pradeep Rajaram Sahni, was caught with 70 gms of Mephedrone in the area of Andheri West. He disclosed that he used to supply Mephedrone to various persons in the Andheri and Juhu Area. He was employed as peon/runner with Balaji Telefilms Pvt. Ltd through a third party. The further distribution network of Pradeep Rajaram Sahni is being investigated, the NCB stated.
It may be mentioned that NCB has been probing Bollywood’s drugs links eversince the mysterious death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
The NCB said it was conducting massive operations against drug traffickers and conducting regular raids on their possible hideouts, after identifying their modus operandi and whereabouts. Today the NCB had synchronised operations in Mumbai and its connections with rest of India and claimed it had made various seizures and arrests which were having ramifications on the narcotics supply chain.
In one such operation, on the basis of specific information, on October 12, 2020, an NCB team had seized 1 kg of cocaine and 2 kg of P.C.P. (Phencyclidine) from One M. Ahmed from Vasai, Palghar. During interrogation, M. Ahmed revealed that the contrabands had been provided by one S.K. Saurabh for further selling. NCB team developed intelligence and on the basis of manual intelligence and technical surveillance, apprehended S.K Saurabh on October 13 from Vasai, Palghar. The sustained interrogation of S.K. Saurabh resulted in further recovery of 29.300 kg of MDA from his shop/godown on October 14.
Saurabh further revealed that the drugs belong to A. Khanivadekar and R. Khanivadekar. A. Khanivadekar was thereafter apprehended and placed under interrogation. “During interrogation, he revealed that his brother R. Khanivadekar is accused in a DRI case of 483 kgs of Ephidrine and is on bail. Before the DRI raid, they had shifted the contrabands to the shop/godown of S.K Saurabh who had taken out the above recovered contraband from that lot while shifting,” the NCB stated.
In the meantime, the NCB today also apprehended one Faruk Chandbadhsah Shaikh (age about 40 years), a resident of Byculla in Mumbai, from Mumbai- Pune Highway, along with one of his associates namely Kurban Ali, a resident of Nagaur in Rajasthan. Shaikh is claimed to be the main receiver of the Charas that was seized in Jammu last month.
Giving details of the case, the NCB said on September 15, it had seized about 56.4 kg of Charas concealed in 55 packets at Ban Toll Plaza, Nagrota, Jammu and apprehended M. Gupta, A. Gambir and Sonia, all residents of Delhi. Rs. 1,91,000/- and the XUV 500 SUV, which was used to conceal and traffic the contraband was also seized by NCB. The Charas was destined for Mumbai. Shaikh was the prime suspect in this case, who alongwith Ali revealed during further interrogation that they were also involved in one case of Mumbai, in which 6 kg Charas was seized from their other associates.
In yet another action on the distribution network of drugs, NCB had arrested one Nigerian national namely Uka Emeka alias Godwin and 04 gms of cocaine has been recovered from him. The seized drug originated from a South American country and the drug trafficker is suspected to be delivering the contraband in the areas of Pali Hill Area, Bandra, Andheri, Juhu and Khar Area. “Further investigations of the forward linkages is underway,” the NCB stated.
– Globalbihari bureau
