Myanmar woman, 5 Chennai men convicted in drug racket

Court awards 8-yr jail to her; other accused get 10 yrs

:A Panchkula court on Tuesday convicted five Chennai-based smugglers and a woman Myanmar national, who were part of an international racket that smuggled heroin and other contraband to Europe and other countries.

The convicts are M Prabhu, R Siva Kumar, RV Shanmugam, S Manni, RV Venktesh, all residents of Chennai in Tamil Nadu and Cer Boih alias Cherry of Myanmar, who was working in Delhi under the garb of an NGO.

After hearing the arguments, additional sessions judge Sanjay Sandhir awarded eight-year imprisonment to the Myanmar national and 10-year jail to the rest. Also, ₹1 lakh penalty each was imposed on all of them

An FIR was registered against the six at the Tripuri police station in Patiala in June 2014 after ₹1.6 crore drug money, 615kg pseudoephedrine and 6.5-kg narcotic powder were recovered from them. In 2016, the trial was shifted to Panchkula on the directions of the Supreme Court on the petition of the accused.

The convicts faced cases registered by the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

The convicts were arrested on tip-off by Gurjit Gaba, an accused in the Bhola drug racket case, who had confessed that the Chennai men procured pseudoephedrine from him. Contraband procured from Himachal Pradesh was routed via Chennai to Malaysia, Myanmar and European countries, it was alleged.

The supply originated from HP, Haryana and Delhi and was routed to Malaysia and European countries via Chennai and Mizoram, it was claimed.

Fake bills drawn on the names of fictitious firms showing delivery of pharmaceutical medicines made from pseudoephedrine were also found in their possession.

Interestingly, the accused had filed more than two dozen writs against the Punjab Police in various courts across states. The accused didn’t get bail in the last five years, said inspector Shaminder Singh, who was part of the probe team.

At the time of arrest, the police had found 4.98 lakh intoxicant tables from the Myanmar woman who was working as a conduit.

SUPPLY STARTED FROM HP, HARYANA AND DELHI AND WAS ROUTED TO MALAYSIA AND EUROPEAN COUNTRIES VIA CHENNAI