Delhi drug bust kingpin has political links: Police
October 03, 2024 22:24
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Intensifying its investigation into the national capital's biggest ever drug haul, the Delhi police has formed several teams to nab other members of the syndicate and also found that the main accused had alleged links with leaders of a national political party, police officials said on Thursday.
They said that around a dozen people from India and abroad were allegedly involved in the international syndicate of smuggling of banned drugs from middle east countries to India.
On Wednesday, the police claimed to have seized over 560 kg of cocaine and 40 kt of hydroponic marijuana estimated to be worth around Rs 5,620 crore from a godown in south Delhi's Mahipalur.
The special cell has arrested four people -- Tushar Goyal (40), Himanshu Kumar (27) and Aurangzeb Siddiqui (23) of Delhi and Bharat Kumar Jain (48) of Mumbai -- and confiscated the consignment weighing over 602 kg which were kept in sacks in the godown.
A senior officer said Goyal is the mastermind of syndicate operating in India, adding it emerged during interrogation that all the four accused were planning to sell a large quantity of drugs in concerts, rave parties and upscale localities in Delhi and other metropolitan cities.
"We have formed several teams to nab the other members of the group," the officer said.
He said that investigators have also come across several photos of Goyal from a social media account where he posed himself with the leaders of the Congress party.
Goyal's purported Facebook account contains his profile picture with a tiger and in the bio it was mentioned that he is the "Chairman of Delhi Pradesh RTI Cell of DYPC, Indian Youth Congress".
The Youth Congress, however, said in a statement that he was expelled from the organisation on October 17, 2022, for indulging in anti-party activities.
Declining to comment on Goyal's political affiliations, the officer said they have identified about half a dozen people from India, who were allegedly involved in the syndicate being run by him in India.
It is suspected that the syndicate was being operated by a Dubai-based person managing the supply of banned drugs in several countries and Goyal was a key player in India.
"During investigation, it was found that a three-storey building, where drugs were recovered, was owned by Goyal's father who runs a business of publishing school books," the officer said.
The police have questioned his 70-year-old father, a source said, adding prime facie, his role has not been found in the syndicate as of now.
Talking to PTI, Goyal's father said that he had disowned his son in 2008 as he had married a woman against the family's wishes, but for the past one and a half years, he started coming to meet them.
He said he does not know how Goyal stored drugs in his godown, adding that the three-storey godown would be used to store the published material.
The police said six mobile phones of all the four arrested persons have been seized and they were trying to go deeper into the network of the syndicate.
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