Maharashtra ATS Arrests International Drug Cartel Member From Delhi

Mubarak Ansari

Mumbai, 18th August 2021: On 17th March 2021, Juhu Unit of Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Mumbai, acting on a specific piece of intelligence, had exposed a drug racket by arresting accused Sohel Yusuf Memon with a contraband of 5.65 kg of Mephedrone (MD), a banned psychotropic substance, then valued at Rs. 2.53 crore in the international market.

It was revealed that the arrested accused had procured the contraband from Niranjan Shah, the another accused. Accordingly, an offence vide ATS CR. No. 13/21, U/s 8(C), 22, 29 of NDPS Act, 1985 was registered and accused Niranjan Shah was shown as wanted in the case.

It was revealed in the further course of investigation that the wanted accused Niranjan Shah was a known drug trafficker on the record of various police stations in Mumbai, Delhi, Anti-Narcotics Cell, Mumbai, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), New Delhi and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). It was also revealed that the wanted accused was an associate of the late notorious Harshad Mehta, the main accused in the huge shares’ scam of the 90s. He was also an accused on the record of the Economics Offences Wing, Mumbai.

The Juhu Unit of ATS, Mumbai was continuously trying to trace and arrest the wanted accused. However, the accused had fled from Mumbai and was evading arrest by constantly changing his location across various states in the country, viz. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.

He was also constantly changing his looks. It had thus become a great challenge to trace and arrest the wanted accused.However, the ATS, Juhu unit roamed across these states and with sheer hard work,perseverance and sustained pursuance traced the accused in Munirka village, Delhi where he was staying as poor man in a single room hired on someone else’s name and nabbed him in a covert operation yesterday.

The accused Niranjan Shah was produce before the court today and he has been remanded to ATS Custody till 25/8/2021.

The arrest of the wanted accused Niranjan Shah was effected with the orders from ADG (ATS) Vineet Kumar Agarwal, DIG Shivdeep Lande and SP Sohail Sharma. The ATS Juhu team comprising of API Sachin Patil, API Dashrath Vitkar, API Sagar Kunjir and Staff headed by PI Dnyaneshwar Wagh worked under the direct supervision of ACP Shripad Kale, in this operation.