Police choked the drug flow before New Year

Barley 72 hours before the Delhiites were planning to go on a high in New Year revelry, the Special Cell of Delhi Police choked the contraband flow and seized purest quality of heroin and crack cocaine worth Rs 150 crores.

“The heroin seized were probably for the use of New Year celebrations across Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Mumbai,” said Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) S N Srivastava. The officer said the contraband was of purest quality and is in demand in parties. The seized heroin and crack cocaine are from Afghanistan and were smuggled in the country from India and Pakistan border at Amritsar.

The police have arrested four people -- Shurbir Singh, Ragmeet Singh, Venugopal Reddy and Autar Singh – from across Delhi in last ten days and few more are on police radar.

Autar is the main conduit, who was in touch with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar drug traffickers.  He had made his house in Tilak Nagar a drug warehouse where he used to stock drugs and supply to the other peddlers on direction of Afghanistan-based trafficker Samiullah. In last one year, they have supplied 127 kgs of heroin worth Rs 375 crores and 2 kgs of crack cocaine.

In mid October 2012, a high-profile meeting took place at Primus Hospital in Chanakya Puri and later at a hotel in Lajpat Nagar where drug traffickers from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India were present. The traffickers came to India on medical visa. From Afghanistan Samiullah and from India Autar and Shurbir attended the meeting with other drug traffickers. “They knew Persian and Pashto languages and were also working as translator for Afghani patients,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav.

The meeting was held on direction of Ali based in Kuwait. This syndicate was being orchestrated by Ali and Samiullah based in Afghanistan. Ali manages demand across these countries and Samiullah procure it from Afghanistan and supply it across various countries. Autar and Shurbir were made the main supplier who would stock the drugs in Delhi and will supply across India and Sri Lanka. On every kilogramme, they were getting 500 US dollar as commission.

Samiullah, who has a well-developed network of Indian drug peddlers, told the peddlers to receive all the consignments from Autar and Shurbir. The duo got the first consignment of two kilogramme of heroin in December 2012 at Safdarjung Hospital. They were asked to operate using new sim on fake address each time they get consignment.

By March 2013, the quantity of consignments being received by them increased to 21 packets in a single delivery.  Also, they had got introduced to several peddlers both Delhi residents as well as residents of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Sri Lanka. For growth of this the cartel, Autar went to Afghanistan in September and stayed there for over a month with Samiullah.

Samiullah also introduced him to peddling of crack cocaine which is even more costly than heroine.

In December second week, 55 kgs of heroin worth approximately 150 crores and two kgs of crack cocaine were delivered by them by a conduit of Samiullah at the District Centre in Janakpuri. This consignment was kept in two separate bags in the house of Shurbir and Autar. Peddlers from across India and Sri Lanka started taking consignment from them.

They were arrested after police seized purest quality heroin from a road side peddler a few months ago and got suspicious that there was influx of drugs in Delhi from Afghanistan

Technical surveillance of mobile numbers for almost two months led to international drug cartel.  On December 18, 2013, technical input was received by inspector Umesh Barthwal that a suspect called Reddy from Andhra Pradesh was coming on Shankar Road in Delhi to collect drugs. Venugopal Reddy was held and on his search three kgs of heroin was recovered.

Reddy interrogation led to arrest Shurbir and Ragmeet from Majnu Ka Tila where they had gone supply heroin on December 19. “We recovered 6 kg from their possession. Ragmeet, a resident of Tilak Nagar, joined the cartel on Shurbir Singh influence,” Yadav.

They disclosed the name of main handler Autar who was directly dealing with Afghanistan and Pakistan counterparts.

On December 28, 2013, Autar was nabbed from G T Karnal Road and on search of Hyundai Santro car in which he was travelling 32 kilogramme of heroin and two kilogramme of crack cocaine were recovered. Thereafter, six kilogramme of heroin was recovered from his house.

Autar Singh told police that he was fleeing to Amritsar to hide the heroin after he came to know about arrest of Shurbir and Ragmeet.

ENDS

Loudspeaker in hand, Afghan man searches for brother...

A 31-year-old Afghan man went missing on December 31, 2011 in Karol Bagh. An interesting tale of two brothers ... One who got lost in Delhi when he came down to the city from Afghanistan for medical treatment and another who come down to Delhi to find his brother... In end both of them become good friends of mine...

Thirty one-year-old Jalaluddin Kamran from Afghanistan went missing from Karol Bagh market on New Year’s eve.

The family of the mentally challenged man has been wandering on the streets of Delhi for two weeks, searching for him.

His younger brother, Farhad Kamran, and mother Hakeema are trying to pull all strings to find Jalaluddin, after realising that the police efforts to search him have been next to negligible.

Farhad, who arrived in Delhi on January 7, has recently hired an autorickshaw and a loudspeaker at a rent of Rs 1,000, and has been travelling across the city.

He is trying to appeal to the public to help him find his brother. He travels around 100 km everyday and regularly visits Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Karol Bagh, Connaught Place, Malkaganj, Kashmere ISBT and Gautam Nagar, even AIIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

“If you get any clue about your brother, call me on my phone,” these are the words of an investigating officer involved in this case. Farhad is employed as an IT manager at a Kabul-based NGO, Meher Educational and Human Rights Organisation.

The family is going to seek the help of the National Human Rights Commission as they are disappointed over the way the police have taken up the matter.

“Whenever I visit Karol Bagh police station, I am made to sit before a computer to identify my brother from over a thousand photographs of unidentified bodies,” added Farhad.

Jalaluddin belongs to a middle-class family in Kabul. His mother, Hakeema, had brought Kamran to Delhi for medical treatment at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in December.

On December 31, 2011, Jalaluddin went missing from Ajmal Khan market in Karol Bagh while Hakeema was shopping. Hakeema filed a missing person complaint with Karol Bagh police station. Farhad reached Delhi on January 7 in search of his brother. Farhad has been regularly visiting mosques, gurdwaras, dargahs, hospitals, railway and bus stations.

“I have arranged a list of night shelters in Delhi. Out of 64, I have already visited over 30. I have hired some boys to distribute and paste pamphlets about Jalaluddin across the city,” he said.

Moreover, after hearing their names, some people suspect them as associates of terrorist outfits.

“I have come across many who blatantly ask me if my brother is a terrorist. One evening, a group of young men tried to assault us. We had to flee from the place to save ourselves,” he added.

The family has also visitedthe Afghan embassy twice and the embassy officials have assured them help through the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

He finds missing brother

Five-month search for mentally challenged sibling leads to Kurukshetra

After seeing over 100 unclaimed bodies at mortuaries across the city, visiting 174 private and government hospitals, looking at dingy lanes, markets and religious places — temples, mosques, churches, gurdwaras — and bus stops in the capital and neighbouring cities for the last 151 days, a 30-year-old man from Afghanistan traced his missing mentally challenged elder brother at Kurukshetra in Haryana on Wednesday.

Jalaluddin Kamran, who belongs to a middle-class family in Kabul, and his 65-year-old mother Hakeema, had brought him to Delhi for treatment at Ganga Ram Hospital in
December.

He went missing from Karol Bagh on December 30 last year. Unable to find him, Hakeema approached Karol Bagh police station and a missing person complaint was registered on December 31.

Hakeema’s other son, Farhad Kamran, who was working as an IT engineer at a Kabul-based NGO, Meher Educational and Human Rights Organisation, flew to Delhi on January 7 to trace his elder brother. He landed in Delhi with a list of hospitals, religious places, police stations, road maps and shelter houses.

“From January onwards, we started putting pamphlets across the capital. There is not a single lane that we have not pasted the pamphlets,” Farhad told Deccan Herald.
After that, Farhad for a few days hired a taxi and started visiting all religious places — where food is provide free of cost. Then he hired an autorickshaw and a loudspeaker  and travelled around for one-and-a-half month.

Realising that the police efforts to search his brother was negligible during the initial days, Farhad and his mother tried to pull all strings to find Jalaluddin.

“Seeing our efforts, Devesh Srivastava, additional commissioner of police (central), formed a special team to help me find my brother. Ram Singh, station house officer of Karol Bagh, too pitched in for help,” Farhad said, thanking the police officials for their support.

People around were losing hope. But he did not give up. “I was taught in school that ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’ and this kept me going. Apart from that, when I saw my mother every morning with pamphlets in one hand and glue in the other, my determination grew stronger,” said Farhad. He lost his job in Kabul and spent almost all the money his family had.

Despite facing problems at the Foreigner Regional Registration Office over  visa and being treated badly in some instances, he kept on looking for his brother. His search ended on Wednesday.

“A neighbour, Kubul Ahmed, at the guest house was going to Punjab to a visit a dargah on Wednesday. I handed him 50 pamphlets and asked him to distribute wherever he went.

When his bus stopped at a roadside eatery at Kurukshetra, he distributed a few pamphlets and moved on. All of a sudden, I received a call from a tea vendor that a man in the pamphlet and a man standing in front of him looked similar and he was asking for water,” said Farhad.

Hearing this, Farhad asked the vendor to keep a watch over the man for an hour.

Meanwhile, he called Karol Bagh police station and asked the officials to get in touch with the local police in Kurukshetra. Within an hour, the local police took that man into custody.

He rushed to Kurukshetra. “When I entered Shahabad police station, I found my brother in tattered conditions,” Farhad said with teary eyes. Now, with no money left, he is wondering whether he will be able to get medical help for his brother, who is also suffering from physical injuries.

I wrote for Deccan Herald