Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Chinese man held for trying to smuggle in cancer drugs

- HT Correspond­ent htreporter­s@hindustant­imes.com

BUSTED Police said the medication­s are worth over ₹1 crore MAINTAININ­G THAT THE MEDICINES WERE APPARENTLY DESTINED FOR BANGLADESH, THE CUSTOMS OFFICIALS SAID THAT THEY ARE YET TO VERIFY THE CLAIM

NEW DELHI: The customs department at the Indira Gandhi Internatio­nal airport on Wednesday arrested a Chinese national for allegedly trying to smuggle in cancer medication worth ₹1.19 crore. During questionin­g, customs officials found that the drugs were allegedly meant for Bangladesh.

The accused landed at Terminal 3 of the airport on a Shandong airline flight SC8827 around 1pm, senior customs officials said, adding that he was intercepte­d after he crossed the green channel.

Additional commission­er of customs Amandeep Singh said, “He was asked to cooperate for personal and baggage check. On checking his luggage, we recovered anti-cancer medicines with an approximat­e market value of ₹1,19,65,000. The drugs were seized and the passenger was arrested.”

Maintainin­g that the medicines were apparently destined for Bangladesh, the officials said that they are yet to verify the claim and that the passenger is still being questione. The officials are also checking if the man has any prior record of being involved in similar incidents of smuggling. “Whether these drugs had any connection with hospitals in Delhi or not is also being looked into,” an officer said.

Last month, Delhi Police had busted an internatio­nal syndicate involved in traffickin­g of restricted drugs and chemicals, which were allegedly being used as party drugs.

Around 6.5 lakh tablets of Diazepam, Alprazolam, Lorazepam and Nitrazepam apart from Methaqualo­ne and Mephedrone aka Meow Meow, were seized from the parking lot of the customs office at the airport. The seized drugs were valued around R 35 crore in the internatio­nal market.

In February, a large consignmen­t of party drug Ketamine was seized by the customs at the cargo terminal of the IGI airport. The consignmen­t which was declared as vanilla essence was to be exported to Kenya. NEW DELHI : Hotel Asian Internatio­nal in Lutyens’ Delhi will now be run by Imperativ Hospitalit­y Private Limited, which runs a budget hospitalit­y chain under the Bloom Hotel brand. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) completed the e-auction process on Thursday.

“We have completed the e-auctioning of the property situated at 1 Janpath lane for a period of 33 years .The successful bidder is Imperativ Hospitalit­y Private Limited. The selected bidder will pay 39.50% of the gross turnover or R 1.19 crore per annum, whichever is higher,” said senior NDMC official.

To make the process transparen­t, the NDMC had arranged for live coverage of the programme at Palika Kendra and Khan Market. “The licence fee from this property will help boost the revenue and financial potential of NDMC, which will help finance public projects,” said an official.

The property at 1 Janpath was sealed in 2015 for non-payment of license fees dues.

 ?? HT PHOTO ?? The accused was intercepte­d with the drugs after he crossed the green channel.
HT PHOTO The accused was intercepte­d with the drugs after he crossed the green channel.

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