Rs 45 cr drugs, gold and diamonds seized at Mumbai airport; 12 held
Mumbai (PTI): Mumbai Customs have seized hydroponic weed, gold and diamonds, collectively valued at Rs 45 crore, that were being smuggled through the airport here and arrested 12 passengers, officials said.
The seizures were made during operations conducted between December 3 and 10 at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, they said.
Based on specific information, the Customs personnel apprehended nine passengers and recovered hydroponic weed (marijuana) valued at Rs 37.26 crore from them, an official said on Wednesday.
In some cases, the contraband was hidden inside trolley bags bearing baggage tags of another flight, while in others, the narcotics were concealed inside lumps of tamarind, he said.
All these passengers, who had arrived from Bangkok on various flights, were arrested under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the official said.
In another operation, Customs sleuths recovered 6 kg of suspected hydroponic weed valued at Rs 6 crore from three passengers, who had also arrived from Bangkok, and arrested them, he said.
They also seized gold valued at Rs 1.51 crore from four passengers and diamonds of Rs 87.75 lakh from another person and registered cases on charges of smuggling, the official added.
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SC rejects Sanjiv Bhatt's plea seeking suspension of sentence in 1996 drug seizure case
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking seeking suspension of the 20-year jail sentence imposed on him in a 1996 drug seizure case.
A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi said it was not inclined to entertain the matter.
The top court was hearing an appeal filed by Bhatt seeking suspension of sentence in the case.
A sessions court in Palanpur town of Gujarat’s Banaskantha district had sentenced Bhatt to 20 years in the case dating back to 1996.
Bhatt was found guilty of falsely implicating a Rajasthan-based lawyer by claiming that in 1996, police had seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur where the lawyer was staying.
Bhatt, who was sacked from service in 2015, was a superintendent of police in Banaskantha district in 1996.
The district police under him had arrested Sumersingh Rajpurohit, a Rajasthan-based lawyer, in 1996 claiming they had seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur town where he was staying.
However, the Rajasthan police later said Rajpurohit was falsely implicated by the Banaskantha police to compel him to transfer a disputed property located at Pali in Rajasthan.
Former police inspector I B Vyas had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the case. Bhatt was arrested by the state CID in September 2018 in the drug case under the NDPS Act and is in Palanpur sub-jail since then.
Last year, the former IPS officer had approached the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the trial in the 28-year-old drug case to another sessions court alleging bias. He had also sought directions for recording of the trial court proceedings.
However, the Supreme Court had dismissed Bhatt’s plea and imposed a cost of Rs 3 lakh on him for alleging bias against a lower court judge conducting his trial in the drug planting case.
