IT Correspondent
Mumbai, Mar 9:
The officers of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) attached to the Mumbai zone and Sub Zonal Unit in Goa jointly conducted searches at Mazal Wado, Assagao, Goa, and at the premises of one Prasad Walke on Sunday and Monday and arrested one Indian and two foreigner drug peddlers and seized a sizable quantity of narcotic drugs.
The seized drugs included: 41 blots of LSD (Commercial quantity), 28 Grams Charas(a hashish form of cannabis), 22 Grams Cocaine, 1.100 kgs Ganja( marijuana), white powder 160 grams (believed to be Narcotics Drugs/Psychotropic Substance) and blue crystal 500 grams (substance suspected to be psychotropic substance). Besides cash of Rs 10,000 was also recovered.
Additionally 15 blots of LSD (commercial quantity) and 30 grams Charas was seized after raiding premises of one Hemant Sah @ Maharaj in Miramar area of North Goa, NCB Zonal Director, Mumbai, and Goa, Sameer Wankhede told the Imphal Times.
The arrested drug peddlers included- foreign nationals-Ugochukwu Solomon Ubabuko (Nigeria) & John Infinity alias David (Congo). Ugochukwu Solomon Ubabuko was earlier arrested in 2013 by Goa police. Besides, an Indian Hemant Sah alias Maharaj was arrested from Miramar, in Panjim.
Hemant was named as a supplier of LSD and Charas, by the accused Anuj Keswani and Regal Mahakaal, already arrested in the actor Sushant Singh Rajput case(CR No 16/2020). Hemant, a native of Madhya Pradesh has been running a shack “Buena Vida” in the Morjim area for the past several years.
While the seizure formalities are underway, the NCB sleuths are on the lookout for Prasad Walke and his other associates. Walke is a history-sheeter who was booked by NCB Goa in the year 2018 for trafficking of LSD, Cocaine, Ecstasy and Ganja.
The NCB has been tasked with probing the allegations of drug abuse, linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who hanged himself on 14, June 2020 in his Bandra flat in northwest Mumbai. By now NCB has nabbed nearly 33 drug peddlers. It also interrogated several Bollywood personalities including actresses Rhea Chakraborty, Deepika Padukone and Sara Ali Khan.
During the last few months, the NCB in its raids recovered over 7 kgs drugs valued at Rs 3.5 crore. Besides Rs 35 lakh cash and a sizable amount of dollars was seized. One of the accused Kshitij Prasad, Executive Producer, Dharma Productions tested positive for drug consumption as per forensic report, NCB Zonal Director, Mumbai, and Goa, Sameer Wankhede stated.
NCB recently filed a 12,000 page charge sheet against 33 accused. The charge sheet with annexures runs into 50,000 pages and includes WhatsApp chats between the accused, their Call Data Records, and bank documents, among other evidence. The NCB has included the statements of over 200 witnesses in the charge-sheet.
