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Top police official held in AP

The Hyderabad city police Wednesday arrested a deputy superintendent of police with the elite commando force, Greyhounds, in connection with a multi-crore international narcotics smuggling racket.

City police spokesman Murali Mohan said that P Bhojraj Yadav was produced before the 11th metropolitan magistrate, who remanded him to judicial custody till October 3.

Investigations into the drug trafficking racket, unearthed on Saturday, established his involvement, he added.

The Greyhounds is an anti-left-wing extremist force in Hyderabad.

The police had arrested four persons, including Bombay-based Iqbal Roopani, his Hyderabad contact Durdana Begum, godown owner Shakeel Akhtar and godown watchman Syed Aziz, in connection with the racket.

The police have launched a manhunt for three persons from Bombay in connection with the racket.

The police had seized contraband meant for smuggling to Johannesburg in South Africa. The haul of drugs will fetch Rs 200 million in the international market and Rs 20 million in the Indian market, he said.

The narcotics were being sent from Bombay to Madras, with Hyderabad as a transit point.

City police commissioner S R Sukumar said that the arrests and seizures were under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1985. The racket was busted by the city police task force, which raided a local transport godown of Rana Transport Company at Bowenpally on the city's outskirts and unearthed mandrax and raw materials.

Mandrax tablets stored in eight cartons were seized. Each carton contained 20,000 tablets. Besides, 70 bags of mandrax powder weighing 2,146 kilograms was also seized. Each bag contained 25 kg of powder, enough for making 25,000 tablets.

Durdana Begum, a resident of Musheerabad, acted as the agent for Roopani, an advocate by profession. Durdana, a 65-year-old widow of a retired official of the rank of additional superintendent of police, had apparently roped in Yadav and others into the racket.

Roopani made Hyderabad a transit point when the Bombay police turned the heat on him. The police are investigating his activities and trying to find out possible links with the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan. Roopani and Durdana are in judicial custody. Yadav's name figured in Durdana's confessional statement.

When Durdana was produced in court on Tuesday, she created a sensation by alleging that task force personnel, who took her into custody, had demanded a bribe of Rs 400,000 to let her off in the case.

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