NIA FILES 3RD SUPPLEMENTARY CHARGESHEET IN MUNDRA PORT NARCOTICS CASE
New Delhi, 12th June 2023: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed its third Supplementary chargesheet against another accused in the Mundra Port case related to the seizure of 2988 kg heroin. The consignment was smuggled into India from Afghanistan via Bandar Abbas, Iran in 2021.
With this, a total of 42 individuals and 7 firms have so far been chargesheeted in the case.
Today’s chargesheet, filed in the NIA Special Court, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, names one Pankaj Vaid @Amit @ Noni Sunaira @ Sanju Baba s/o Surinder Pal, a resident of Amritsar Punjab. He has been charged under various sections of IPC and NDPS Act, 1985.
Pankaj is accused of being a part of the organized criminal conspiracy to smuggle illegal consignments of heroin through international trade routes to India from Afghanistan. As per NIA investigations, Pankaj was associated with foreign-based narcotics traders involved in pushing drugs into India.
NIA investigations have further revealed that Pankaj had facilitated the processing/extraction of heroin and later sold the extracted heroin in India in the case (RC-26/2021/NIA/DLI dated 06.10.2021).
The case was initially registered by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Unit- Gandhidham, Gujarat vide Case file No. DRI/AZU/GRU/NDPS-01/2021 under the provisions of the NDPS Act.
NIA took over the investigations on 6th October 2021 and filed a chargesheet against 16 accused persons on 14th March 2022. Subsequently, it filed the 1st Supplementary chargesheet against nine more persons on 29th August 2022 and the 2nd against seven firms and 15 individuals on 20th February 2023.
Further investigations in the case are in progress.
