A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Ahmedabad has rejected the discharge plea of eight accused in the ₹21,000 crore heroin case seized in 2021 from Mundra in Gujarat.

The court said that in view of the charge sheet, the evidence against the accused in this case is sufficient to conduct a trial.

The court stated that the evidence collected by the NIA in this case warrants the discharge plea of the accused in view of the gravity of the crime and the prima facie case.

A special NIA court rejected the discharge plea of accused Mohmand Khan Akhalki Abdul Khan, Rajkumar Perumal, Fardin Omer Amr, Subhan Aryanfar, Ohan Madhav Waghudade, Pradeep Kumar Anandsingh, Sushant Sarkar, and Prince Sharma.

Special Judge Kamal M. Sojitra of the Special NIA Court said in the judgment that as per the NIA case, the modus operandi of the accused was exposed on Sept 13, 2021, when 2,988.21 kg of semi-processed drug was seized from Mundra port by DRI Gandhidham, which was being shipped under the guise of talc stone consignment.

The consignment was imported by M/s Ashi Trading Company and exported by Hasan Hussain Ltd based in Afghanistan. Considering the seriousness of the case, the investigation was handed over to the NIA on Oct 6, 2021.

In the chargesheet against 18 accused by the NIA, the accused including Vityash Kosar alias Raju Dubai, Firdun Aman alias Javed Aman, Abdul Salam Noorjai and Mohmand Iqbal Awan, a resident of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, were listed as wanted.

The NIA, in its investigation, has made revelations about financial funds from the sale of heroin being channelled to Lashkar-e-Taiba operators for terrorist activities.

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