New Delhi, Aug 31 (PTI) A special court in Mohali has ordered the attachment of the property of a close associate of Pakistan-based self-styled chief of Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) in a 2019 case of seizure of heroin and drug proceeds, officials said Thursday.
Varinder Singh Chahal’s property — 24 kanals, 14 marlas and four sarsai located in village Devidaspura of district Amrtisar Rural (Punjab) — was ordered to be attached under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 by the special court on Wednesday, an agency spokesperson said.
It is being seen as a “big boost in the NIA crackdown on the narco-terror network of international drugs smugglers”, he said.
Chahal is an accused in a case registered by the NIA on January 22, 2020 related to the seizure of 500 gram heroin and Rs 1.20 lakh drug money from Chahal and two other accused — Jagbir Singh Samra and Harpreet Singh alias Happy — in 2019, it said.
“Subsequent investigations in the case revealed that Varinder Chahal was a close associate of an international Dubai-based drug smuggler and money launderer Jasmeet Singh Hakimzada, and also of Pakistan-based self-styled Chief of KLF, Harmeet Singh alias Ph.D,” the NIA spokesperson said.
It is alleged Chahal collected heroin consignments from Kashmiri drug-dealers on the directions of Hakimzada and Ph.D as part of a KLF narco-terror module.
“The narco-terror network of KLF, a proscribed terrorist organisation, was being operated by these terrorists through India-based drug smugglers, the NIA investigations revealed,” the spokesperson said.
Hakimzada and Ph.D allegedly ran widespread network that involved drug-smugglers and terror operatives and Hawala operatives based in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi, he said. “The NIA has established the role of Harmeet Singh alias PhD in this narco-terror network and has found that Ph.D was using the money to strengthen and expand KLF’s activities in India and to radicalise vulnerable youth to spread terror as part of the outfit’s agenda to promote terror and violence related activities in India,” the spokesperson said.
According to the NIA, Hakimzada is also engaged in the promotion of narco-terror activities internationally and has been involved in smuggling of heroin and psychotropic substance around the world. “The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed financial sanctions against him by declaring him as a ‘Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker'” it said. PTI ABS TIR TIR
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