NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined bail to a Delhi-based businessman arrested in the Rs 21,000 crore Mundra port drug haul case, termed as the country’s biggest drug haul.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh rejected the bail plea, while granting liberty to accused Harpreet Singh Talwar alias Kabir Talwar to approach the court after six months for bail.
The investigating agency claimed that the proceeds of this sale for all these consignments, was to be used for funding terror activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The court found the allegation of terror financing against Talwar was premature.
The bench directed the special court to list the matter twice in a month for expeditious conclusion of trial in the case.
The NIA, while opposing Talwar’s bail, argued that it was a test case of sending narco consignment related to heroin to India, disguised as legal imports in the form of semi-processed talc stones in the form of a raw material having a wide range of applications.
"The said semi-processed talc stones were heroin laden stones, which were imported to India in the name of newly opened proprietor firms and shell companies, which showed these heroin laden semi-processed talc stones as a business commodity," the NIA said in an affidavit.
The present case was pointed out to be "largest intercepted consignment of narco-substance" being brought to India through illicit means.
The NIA’s counsel claimed Talwar a habitual offender who was previously booked in several cases of smuggling, and there were apprehensions, if he is granted bail, that the witnesses could either be influenced or killed.
On September 12, 2021, some containers arrived at Mundra Port from Afghanistan via Iran, filled with bags full of semi-processed talc stones.
Upon checking the containers on September 13, 2021, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence claimed some of the bags were found to contain heroin, eventually leading to the alleged recovery of 2988. 21 kilograms of heroin worth Rs 21,000 crore.
Investigators subsequently found that it was the sixth and last consignment which was intercepted. Several people, including Afghan nationals, were arrested in connection with the case.
