A former deputy speaker of Manipur Assembly was arrested on Thursday with over one kilogramme of high-grade heroin during an early morning swoop on a Guwahati hotel
Two others were also arrested in the swoop. The price of the heroin is estimated to be nearly Rs one crore in the international market.
Lokhon Singh Heinam, former deputy speaker and a Congress leader, was booked under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
His two accomplices have been identified as Oinam Netrajit Singh, an executive member of the Manipur State Congress Party, and Bitu Ramchiary, a peddler based in Guwahati.
Commissioner of Customs (northeastern region) D D Ingty said officials from the Narcotics Bureau, Excise Department and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence led by Assistant Commissioner M Marbaniang conducted a raid at Hotel Ritz at Manipuri Basti area of the city acting on a tip off.
"The operation carried out today is after four months of observation and gathering of intelligence by the department, and it is only after confirmation of the presence of the heroin that we finally made the crackdown this morning," Ingty said.
"Interrogation of the arrested persons is still on, and more details about the cartel will shortly be unearthed. As a part of the follow-up action, raids are now being carried out in Imphal. The former minister Heinam Lokhon Singh's residence might also be raided," Ingty added.
Talking to newsmen Joint Commissioner of Customs (northeastern region) K Ashi Khieya revealed the drugs had been brought by the three arrested from Imphal to Guwahati on October 18 last.
"The arrested persons, who claim to be only agents and not the kingpins of the gang, had been trying to dispose the drugs to customers at Rs 1.3 million," Khieya said. It is suspected the drugs were originally smuggled from Myanmar to Imphal, he added.
Lokhon Singh was first elected to the Manipur Assembly from Konthoujam in 1979. He was a lecturer at Manbol Leiren Girls Higher Secondary School before joining the Congress in 1967. He subsequently joined the Manipur State Congress party.
He was minister of state for medical and public health engineering in the Rishang Keishing ministry during 1981-85, PWD minister in the R K Joychandra Singh government from 1988-1990, minister for animal husbandry and veterinary once again in the Keishing government in 1995. He was in charge of finance, excise and taxation in the W Nipamacha Singh-led government in 1997.