Delhi drug bust: Police probe finds kingpin's links with political party; one more held
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Police on Thursday arrested another person in connection with the city's biggest-ever drug haul with investigators finding that the main accused had alleged links with leaders of a national political party, officials said.
The arrested accused, Jitender Gill alias Jassi, a UK resident but Indian national, was nabbed from near Punjab's Amritsar airport this evening. He was intending to fly back to London, a senior police officer said.
Gill, aged around 40 years, had come to India to supervise the drug cartel's operations in the country but was planning to escape after the arrest of four members, the officer said. He added that the accused had been living in UK for the past 25 years but did not have a citizenship.
He is being brought to Delhi and will be produced before the court on Friday to seek custody for interrogation, the officer said.
On Wednesday, the police claimed to have seized over 560 kilograms of cocaine and 40 kilograms of hydroponic marijuana estimated to be worth around Rs 5,620 crore from a godown in south Delhi's Mahipalur.
A senior police officer said Tushar Goyal (40), who has arrested on Wednesday, is the mastermind of the syndicate operating in India, adding that investigators have also come across several photos of Goyal from a social media account where he posed himself with the leaders of the Congress party.
Goyal's purported Facebook account has his profile picture with a tiger and his bio mentions that he is the "chairman of Delhi Pradesh RTI Cell of DYPC, Indian Youth Congress".
The Indian Youth Congress, however, said in a statement that he was expelled from the organisation on October 17, 2022 for indulging in anti-party activities.
Apart from Goyal, the special cell on Wednesday arrested four people, Himanshu Kumar (27) and Aurangzeb Siddiqui (23) of Delhi and Bharat Kumar Jain (48) of Mumbai -- and confiscated the consignment weighing over 602 kilograms which were kept in sacks in the godown.
The officer said it also emerged during interrogation that all the four accused were planning to sell a large quantity of drugs in concerts, rave parties and upscale localities in Delhi and other metropolitan cities.
"We have formed several teams to nab the other members of the group," the officer said.
Police officials said around a dozen people from India and abroad were allegedly involved in the international syndicate of smuggling of banned drugs from middle-east countries to India.
Declining to comment on Goyal's political affiliations, the officer said they have identified about half a dozen people from India, who were allegedly involved in the syndicate being run by him in India.
"During investigation, it was found that a three-storey building, where drugs were recovered, was owned by Goyal's father who runs a business of publishing school books," the officer said.
The police have questioned his 70-year-old father, a source said, adding prime facie, his role has not been found in the syndicate as of now.
Speaking to PTI, Goyal's father said he had "disowned" his son in 2008 after he married a woman against the family's wishes. However, Goyal had been visiting his family for the past one-and-a-half years.
He said the three-storey godown was used to store the published books, adding that had no clue about Goyal storing drugs in the building.
The police said six mobile phones of all the four arrested persons have been seized and they were trying to go deeper into the network of the syndicate.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
