Mission Srinagar: Mumbai cops nab charas supplier from sensitive area

The arrested accused with the team of Mumbai Crime Branch Unit 6

A Kashmiri charas supplier has been arrested recently by the Mumbai Crime Branch from a sensitive area in Srinagar. Unit 6 of Mumbai Crime Branch made the arrest with the help of Srinagar police which deployed around 100 armed personnel to escort the Mumbai team to avoid any untoward incident as the area is sensitive and the drug dealers from these pockets are believed to have links with narco-terror groups.

The accused was arrested from Magarmal Baug of Srinagar on January 8. However there was a delay in bringing the accused to Mumbai as the cops got stuck there due to bad weather and heavy snowfall.

Possible narco-terror link

The Crime Branch suspects that the accused, Gulzar Maqbool Ahmed Khan, may have been part of narco-terror groups, but the local police is yet to ascertain the same. The suspicion was based on the fact that local police have arrested several charas dealers from the area who were found to have links with narco-terror activity. "The local police provided a lot of assistance, making the arrest possible from such a sensitive location," said Senior Inspector Ravindra Salunkhe from Unit 6.

Mumbai link

The Mumbai Police said that Khan was not on the radar of the Srinagar police. Khan came under the scanner of the Mumbai Crime Branch last year in October following the arrest of four people in possession of 24 kg pure Kashmiri Charas from Dahisar toll naka.

The cops found that the four arrested accused - Bandu Udanshive, 52; his wife Clera, 52; daughter Cynthia, 23; and son-in-law Jasar Jahangir Shaikh, 24 - were returning from Kashmir. The Crime Branch further found that the accused visited Jammu and Kashmir frequently and tried to make it look like family trips to evade suspicion.

"The accused confessed to meeting one person in Srinagar who supplied charas to them. They would then bring the consignment to Mumbai via road," said a police officer, adding that Khan was one of the helpers.

Mission Srinagar

Following the findings, a crime branch team went to Srinagar in the first week of January and located the accused at his shop. "After his arrest, we faced multiple challenges to bring him to Mumbai as the area was very sensitive and the weather was very bad. We got stuck for two days due to heavy snowfall and a tunnel got blocked. The team reached Mumbai on Thursday," Salunkhe said.

During the initial probe, the Crime Branch found that Khan was a dealer and would supply the contraband to dealers in Mumbai for a 25 per cent profit margin. The accused was earlier arrested by Worli Anti-Narcotics team in 2010 in a drug-related case. "We have also asked other police stations to check records," Salunkhe added.

January 8
Day when the accused was arrested