Bhuj, Jul 17 (PTI) A man has been arrested from Punjab in connection with the seizure of heroin worth Rs 376-crore by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) near the Mundra port in Kutch district, an official said on Sunday.
The accused, Deepak Kingar, was produced before a special court of judge Chirag Shah who remanded him to the ATS’ custody till July 27, said special public prosecutor Kalpesh Goswami.
The ATS had sought a 14-day remand of Kingar but the court granted them his custody for ten days, he said.
The ATS on July 12 seized over 70 kg of heroin estimated to be worth more than Rs 376 crore from a container near the Mundra port in the Kutch district.
The ATS said the seized contraband had been sent from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was meant to be delivered to Punjab.
The seizure was made based on a tip-off given by the Punjab police that a shipping container that had arrived at the port about two-and-a-half months ago might contain drugs and cargo, it said.
After a close inspection of 540 fabric rolls kept in the container, heroin powder was found inside 64 of them, the probe agency said.
According to Goswami, Kingar had allegedly imported the fabric roll in which the contraband was hidden to dodge the authorities.
A cloth was wrapped on long cylindrical pipes made of cardboard, and the drug dealers had created a cavity by putting a plastic pipe of a larger diameter on the cardboard pipe. Heroin was filled in the cavity and then sealed tightly using carbon tapes to ensure that it goes undetected in the x-ray check.
The container was sent by a UAE-based entity and it was received by a West Bengal-based delivery service with an office at Gandhidham in Kutch, it was stated. PTI COR KA ARU NSK NSK
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