New Delhi — The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has chargesheeted one more accused in a 2020 narco-terrorism case relating to the seizure of 17 kgs of heroin along with cash in Jammu and Kashmir.
Syed Saleem Jahangir Andrabi alias Saleem Andrabi has been charged under relevant sections of the NDPS Act, IPC and UA(P) Act in the third supplementary chargesheet filed by NIA before the agency’s Special Court in Jammu, said the agency in a press release.
The accused, a resident of district Kupwara, was arrested in July 2024 after evading arrest for the last four years in the case. With this, a total of 16 accused have so far been chargesheeted in the case.
The Handwara police had registered the case originally in June 2020 when, during the checking of vehicles at Kairo Bridge, accused Abdul Momin Peer was intercepted while coming from Baramulla in his vehicle. A search of the vehicle had led to the seizure of around Rs. 2 crore in cash and 2 kgs of heroin. Peer’s questioning had led to further recovery of 15 kg of heroin and Rs. 1.15 crore in cash.
NIA, which had taken over the case in June 2020, found during the investigation that accused Syed Saleem Jahangir Andrabi was part of a deep-rooted conspiracy to procure and sell narcotics drugs and generate funds in J&K and other parts of India.
He was working in close association with operatives of Pak-based banned terrorist outfits, Lashkar-E-Taiba (LeT) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM). The funds so generated were used for the furtherance of terrorist activity in the UT of J&K through a network of over-ground workers (OGWs), as per the NIA investigations. – (KIMS)
